THE KROTENKOPF AND THE KRAMER. 319 



gut*. 



The distance a wounded animal will sometimes go before leaving, on 

 the ground over which he has passed, any trace that he has been hit, is 

 most extraordinary, and in some cases appears to me quite inexplicable. 

 But a week or two before penning this note, four or five deer suddenly 

 crossed my path one evening, as I was returning home through the 

 woods. They were a great distance off; but as they stopped to gaze 

 for a moment, I took my chance and fired. I was sure that I had hit 

 the deer, and as they all passed among the trees, I felt still more certain 

 from peculiar motion I observed in one of them. I followed the slot 

 across the snow, but saw nothing. Yet still, not convinced that I had 

 missed, I kept going on and on, and at last saw a single red drop on 

 the white surface of the ground. A little further there were more ; 

 presently, on the side of the slot there was a perfect crimson shower ; 

 and a moment or two after, the deer was seen stretched dead. 



Sometimes a part of the intestines will protrude, and close up the 

 opening which the bullet has made, and then of course it is no wonder 

 the trickling of the blood should cease. But the hemorrhage takes 

 place inwardly, and, after following the slot for many hundred yards, 

 and when perhaps you have given up all hope, you will very likely find 

 the stag in a thicket quite dead, or lying in the middle of a stream, his 

 strength having failed him in making a last effort to leap across. 



It requires an experienced eye however to detect a drop or two of 

 blood, amid the dead leaves with which the ground in the forest is 

 covered ; and where the earth is hard, or strewn with the dry foliage of 

 the preceding summer, it is difficult even to make out the slot at all ; 

 and yet by practice you at last discern the slightest imprint in the 

 ground, and recognize in a moment if it has been made by a deer or 

 not. 



When following the slot of an animal that you think you have 

 wounded, without finding on the ground any traces of his being so^ 

 it is well, should he pass a thicket, to examine the boughs he 

 has brushed against in forcing his way through. The branches hang 

 close upon his broad sides, and a leaf may have swept over the wound ^ 



