DEER-HUNTING ON THE AU SABLE. 



By W. MACKAY LAFFIN. 



AN invitation to a few weeks' deer-shooting in the wilds of 

 / 1 Michigan was not to be foregone. There had been occasional 

 IJl rumors heard in the East of the winter sports of the Michigan 

 backwoods ; rumors that had lost none of their attractiveness by 

 their journey from the West, and which served to make the oppor- 

 tunity, when it did arrive, wholly irresistible. I was to join a party 

 of gentlemen, who for several years have hunted upon the Au Sable 

 River in northern Michigan, upon one of their annual trips ; and we 

 were all to meet upon an appointed day at Bay City, which is at the 

 head, if head it can be called, of Saginaw Bay. Our route thence 

 was by steamer to Tawas, and from Tawas by teams to the hunting- 

 grounds in the Michigan backwoods. 



The steam -boat wharf at Bay City was full of bustle and activity. 

 There were piles of baggage and numbers of anxious owners. Con- 

 spicuous among the parcels were the gun-cases, some made of new 

 pig leather or water-proofing, and evidently out for the first time, 

 and others of weatherworn aspect, telling of many a campaign and 

 of much serious usage. Every object upon the wharf and about the 

 fniL^ht office to which a dog could be tied had a dog tied to it, and 

 all these dogs were rearing, and plunging, and tugging at their 

 chains, and giving vent to occasional sharp yells, in a condition of 

 great excitement — a feeling more or less shared by the numerous 

 higher animals who were present. The crowd was composed of 

 hunting parties bound for the backwoods by way of the various set- 

 tlements on the Lake Huron side of the Michigan peninsula; of lum- 

 bermen going to the camps ; of farmers going home, and of the usual 



