112 THE COMMON AMERICAN DEER. 



prohibited by law in some of the Southern States, 

 where it sometimes happens that cattle suffer instead 

 of bucks or does. A gentleman in Louisiana once 

 fired at a pair of eyes which he had shined, and dis- 

 covered that he had killed his own horse, which he 

 had tied to a tree while indulging in the sport. 

 Another gentleman, while indulging in this ques- 

 tionable sport, saw a pair of eyes which he firmly 

 believed to be those of a deer. Of course he fired, 

 and had the pleasure of discovering, from the pro- 

 longed howl that followed his shot, that he had killed 

 his own ' track-dog,' which had been held between 

 the knees of a negro slave. 



The most romantic legend of the backwoods con- 

 nected with fire-hunting is one in which the celebrated 

 Daniel Boone plays the hero. On one occasion, it 

 is said, while fire-hunting, he * shined ' a pair of mild 

 blue eyes, which seemed to him not to belong to 

 the species of game he was in search of. He lowered 

 his rifle and advanced, when, to his great surprise, 

 he discovered a young girl, who seemed equally 

 astonished at the adventure. The backwoods man, 

 deeply grateful that he had not fired, accompa- 

 nied the fair one to her father's hut hard by, and 

 shortly afterwards she became the wife of the famous 

 hunter. 



The perfection of pleasure is, in my opinion, a 

 camp hunt in the woods of Texas — a week or a 



