GRAND CIRCULAR HUNT. J9 



and, wherever they attempted to escape, they were met 

 by the shouts and more terrible knives of the party. 



Among the deer was one particularly large and pow- 

 erful. His antlers appeared at their points, to be at 

 least nine feet apart. His color was a dark red, with 

 only a single white star on his forehead. He made 

 several attempts to escape, but for a while was unsuc- 

 cessful. His eyes flashed with rage. He pawed the ice, 

 until the spot where he stood was entirely fiee from 

 snow. He shook his antlered head at the hunters, and 

 appeared several times on the point of attempting to 

 break through the thickest portion of the line. Finally, 

 after coursing around the circle several times, at the top 

 of his speed, he made directly towards the line. Their 

 cries were unavailing; nothing seemed now to have 

 power to drive him back. With a tremendous leap, he 

 passed over the heads of the hunters cleared every ob- 

 stacle and was, in an instant, lost to sight in the depths 

 of the forest. This gallant exploit was received with a 

 tremendous cheer ; and I firmly believe that not a hun- 

 ter in the crowd would willingly have harmed him, had 

 he presented the fairest mark for his rifle. Had it been 

 a man, he would have been sent to Congress. 



Now came the most exciting part of the hunt. The 

 unerring guns of the marksmen had thinned the group 

 considerably ; and those that remained no longer con- 

 tinued in the centre, but kept running about the ice, at 

 a loss how to act. The heat of the sun and the weight 

 of the animals had considerably weakened the ice. Sud- 

 denly, as a volley was poured into the crowd, they all 

 gathered again in the centre of the lake. There was a 



