IN THE FAR WEST. 279 



When a grand hunt is organized in a neighbourhood, the 

 farmers who are on friendly terms with each other unite into 

 one company, each bringing his own dogs with him ; and in 

 this manner an excellent working pack is soon assembled, 

 though in looks, voice, and breeding its members might not 

 bear the criticisms of judges of canine excellence. If the hunt 

 is to last for a week or two, the hounds are divided into 

 groups, and those that run one day are left in camp the next, 

 and when rested in this manner they are able to work uninter- 

 ruptedly for three or four weeks at a time, and to run from five 

 to twenty deer in a day. Those persons who relish the cry of 

 the hounds as much as the haunch of venison, keep seven or 

 eight couples of good dogs and run them together, and their 

 sweet voice causes the forests to ring with melodious strains 

 from morning till night. There are few more pleasing sounds 

 than the cry of a clear-voiced pack amid the woods and moun- 

 tains of the country, as every note is echoed and re- echoed in 

 stentorian tones over an area several miles square, and this gives 

 one an idea that thousands of dogs are giving tongue at the 

 same time. Another advantage that a slow-going pack has 

 over a swift one is, that the deer are not driven at such a pace 

 as to injure their flesh, and that the hunter has a better 

 chance of killing them as they move past his stand. 



One of the greatest annoyances attending deer-hunting in 

 the dense forests of the North-west is the number that escape 

 after being mortally wounded, as they seek shelter in the 

 heaviest shrubbery, where it is almost impossible to find them, 

 let one be even argus-eyed. This is specially true in stalking 

 or still-hunting, for a deer will often carry away a large 

 quantity of lead before it falls. I have known one to be shot 

 in the heart and run a long distance ere it fell, and another to 

 escape for good although its foreshoulder was broken. This 

 was killed a year later, and when skinned it was found that 

 the leg was ns stiff as a bone, while the flesh had become as 

 hard as leather, owing to the paralysis of the muscles. Shots 

 in the abdomen and ribs are not likely to bring it down 

 promptly, and I knew one to receive a load of buckshot in the 

 neck and escape;. I have, on the contrary, seen one tumbled 



