22O FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



course or speed but kept steadily bounding along. The deer were 

 not more than forty yards from me. I dropped on one knee and 

 leaned the gun across my knee, grabbed a handful of snow and 

 jammed it into my face, then placed the gun to my face and began 

 firing at the deer again with no better results. 



When the bunch of deer were nearly a hundred yards away and 

 they had all passed over the brow of the hill, except one large 

 doe that was a little behind the rest, the fever left me as sud- 

 denly as it came on. I pu-lled the gun onto her and fired. She 

 staggered, gave a lunge down the hill and fell dead. I could have 

 told within an inch of where the ball struck her before I went to 

 the deer. I could not have told within fifty feet of where my 

 other shots went. 



I followed my drove of deer a short distance to make sure 

 that I had not wounded any of them and then I dragged the doe 

 down into the hollow to dress and hang up. Pretty soon Mr. Cor- 

 win came to me and seeing only the one deer asked me if that 

 was the only one I had killed with all that shooting. Mr. Corwin 

 said that he had counted nine shots that I had fired. When I told 

 him the story he had a hearty laugh of half an hour and said that 

 I was lucky that I did not die in a fit. 



Now boys, you who have never had the buck fever can laugh 

 at me all you like, but those who are over fond of the chase <nd 

 get the buck fever will sympathize with me. Had I been expecting 

 and looking for this drove of deer at the time instead of only one 

 deer I should not have been attacked with this case of buck fever. 



Now, I will tell you of another case of buck fever from a 

 cause entirely different from that just related. I was following the 

 trail and there was just enough snow on the ground to make the 

 best of still hunting. The wind was blowing just strong enough 

 to make a noise in the tree tops overhead to drown any noise that 

 the hunter might make by stepping on a dry limb, and every once 

 in a while there would come a snow squall that would be so dense 

 that you could see scarcely fifty feet. 



I had trailed the doe along the side of the hill for some dis- 

 tance. She was feeding alone and I was working along very care- 

 fully, keeping along the ridge several yards above the trail, to 



