142 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



absorbed noiselessness that all Deer-hunters will under- 

 stand, where to break a twig or step on a brittle stick gives 

 one a twinge as for a guilty thing. 



We had gone sideling up a high ridge, on the very 

 brow of which rose a single massive rock, fifteen or twenty 

 feet in height. We were nearing it slowly, within a hun- 

 dred yards, when out from behind it stepped a noble doe. 

 She moved on to a little mound or hillock, and there stood 

 motionless as her eye caught us. It was a sight I shall 

 never forget, and shall never see again. Below and beyond 

 her the ridge pitched steeply down, so that her entire form 

 stood outlined above the horizon against the clear, blue sky. 

 She stood as if for a picture, as, indeed, she was in herself. 

 In a life of sixty years, and in pursuit of game under all 

 conditions, animated nature has never presented to my 

 sight anything so beautiful. 



She stood slightly quartering to us, visible from her 

 great nine inch ears to her very hoofs. My son barely 

 turned his head, and whispered: 



" Do you see that? '' 



But my rifle was at my shoulder, and, as he spoke, I 

 fired. The Deer gave a wheel backward, and went out of 

 sight. This was bad. I had been perfectly steady; my rifle 

 was perfectly sighted for just that distance, and she ought 

 to have fallen in her tracks. 



I felt crestfallen. As we walked slowly up, my son said: 



" Father, where did you aim? '' 



I said: "At the big. round, whitish spot on her left 

 breast; for the bullet would pass through the heart and out 

 on the other side/' 



With much chagrin, he said: 



"I should think an old hunter, as you are, would have 

 known enough to aim at the point of the shoulder. Then 

 if your ball had dropped six inches, you would still have 

 got her; but now, if you dropped four inches, it went 

 below her brisket, and you have missed her altogether/' 



"But." I said, "at that distance I didn't mean to have 

 my ball drop four inches/' 



