AMERICAN DEER. 91 



of the forest to luxuriate on the settler's corn, turnips, 

 pease, and even potatoes ; but as they generally select the 

 night-time for these marauding expeditions, it is only 

 when the moon shines that they can be detected, and 

 even then it is frequently necessary to watch for many 

 hours for that purpose. Except, however, in India or 

 South Africa, I know no pleasanter climate for such an 

 occupation ; the summer nights are delightful, and so dry 

 is the atmosphere that one may sit out in the lightest 

 costume, enjoying the sweet chirping whistle of the 

 piping-frog, which rings soothingly in the still air, while 

 fire-flies glance in every thicket. 



The "salt licks" met with in many parts of the 

 country are also a favourite resort of the Deer, and if any 

 at all are about the neighbourhood they are sure to be 

 found there, and are consequently watched for and killed 



by shooters stationed beforehand in the nearest trees. 

 * 



A mode of destruction, less common in Canada than 

 in the States, is practised on dark summer nights as 

 follows. A blazing light of birch bark and " fat pine" is 

 kindled in an iron cresset fixed in the bows of a canoe, 

 precisely as in salmon spearing ; the rifleman sits amid- 

 ships, covered by green boughs, and the steersman 

 similarly concealed, gently paddles the little skiff along 

 the dark wooded shores of the lake or river, at the hour 

 when the Deer, after the heat of the day, repair to the 



