298 FIFTY YEARS A HUNTER AND TRAPPER. 



Frank that it would be poor policy to kill deer as long as we 

 could make use of but a small part of a single deer. 



After we had gotten out a good line of deadfalls for marten, 

 mink and coon, and as it was now about the first of November 

 and time to bait up the deadfalls, and set out what steel traps 

 we had for fox, I told Frank that we would carry our guns with 

 us and try to kill a deer for bait and camp use. Frank could 

 hardly sleep that night; he was so delighted to think that the 

 time had come to quit the monkey business, as he called it, and 

 begin business. 



We climbed the ridge where we knew there were some deer, 

 following down the ridge, one on each side, .along the brow of 

 the hill. We put in the entire day without getting a shot at a deer. 

 That night it snowed about an inch, so that in the wooded timber, 

 one could see the trail of the deer in the snow ; but in hemlock 

 timber there was not enough snow on the ground, so a track 

 could be followed. We had killed a squirrel or two, and had a 

 little prepared bait, so we concluded to bait a few traps until we 

 struck a deer trail. 



We did not succeed in finding the tracks of any deer until 

 well along in the afternoon. It so happened that I got a shot 

 at a deer that was nearly hidden from sight behind a large tree. 

 I shot the deer through, just forward of the hips. We followed 

 it only a short distance when we found the bed of the deer, and 

 there was blood in it, so it was plain to be seen in what manner 

 the deer was wounded. All still-hunters (excuse the word still- 

 hunt; the word stalking does not sound good to a backwoods- 

 man) of deer know that when a deer is shot well back through 

 the small intestines, that if conditions will allow, the right thing 

 to do is to leave the trail for a time and the deer will lie down. 

 If left alone for an hour or two the hunter will have but little 

 trouble in getting his deer. So in this case, as <we were not far 

 from camp and it was nearly sundown, I told Frank that we had 

 better let the deer go until morning, when we would have more 

 daylight ahead of us, and we would get the deer with less trouble. 



We started for camp and had gone only a short distance when 



