394 PORTY-POUE YEARS OP 



near which is a tree, on which a convenient seat can be 

 arranged at a considerable elevation. Then take a small 

 stake, drive it into the ground to the deptli of eighteen 

 inches or two feet, and fill the hole made by it with clean 

 alum-salt. Make three or four such holes, fill them all, 

 and sprinkle a little salt over the ground around them. The 

 deer will soon find the place, and come often to lick the 

 salt, while the hunter, sitting high up in the tree, has every 

 chance for obtaining a fair shot at them. 



It is a strange thing that a buck has to wait from the 

 first of April till the last of September for the growth of 

 his horns ; and they seldom use them in their own defence 

 until the middle of October. It does seem to me as if 

 nature has prepared their horns only for the purpose o^' 

 figliting each other during the time they are making love 

 to the does ; for if those horns had been intended for the 

 defence of the deer, why should the doe be without them, 

 or why do they fall off so soon ? 



The wild buck is a most beautiful animal ; and when he 

 first comes into existence, he is red, with two rows of beau- 

 tiful white spots on bis sides. His mother suckles him 

 with great care, hiding him in the most secret places, to 

 elude the search of all his and her enemies. 



He is thus raised in all innocence till the following 

 spring, when he is one year old ; at which time a pair of 

 little horns commence growing straight up, like those of a 

 goat. Those little horns fall off during the succeeding 

 winter, and when he is two years old a crooked bvanch 

 grows out, with one spike on it. He is then called a 

 forked-horned or spiked buck. At three years old, he has 

 three prongs on his horns, and is then termed a three- 

 pronged buck. Every year that he lives after this period, 

 until he arrives at the age of five or seven years, his honii- 

 increase, and become very large, until they finally contain 

 as many as twelve or fifteen points. 



