52 With Rod and Gun in Nezu England 



" Before the opening of the hunting season the deer is easily approached, 

 but like most other denizens of the woods it is shy and wary when the 

 sportsman is abroad ; more so, perhaps, than most other animals, for it seems 

 to have no friends, whatever. Gifted with remarkable powers of vision and 

 hearing, the slightest unusual sound or motion arouses its suspicions, and at 

 the first hint of danger it is off and away. 



" The hunter, therefore, to be successful must be experienced in all the 

 traditions and finesse of the chase, and added to these he must possess 

 endurance and patience, a quick eye and ear, a ready hand, and instanta- 

 neous and certain aim. 



" Among the methods by which the deer is pursued, stalking or still- 

 hunting is the favorite, and this calls for all the best qualities of the hunter. 

 He must rustle no dead leaves nor crack beneath his feet the sticks and 

 twigs which cumber his path ; he must, in short, be accomplished in wood- 

 craft and be ready to meet his quarry at a moment's notice. Of course, in 

 making his way through the thick jungle in which windfalls and dead wood 

 abound, even the most careful hunter cannot move about altogether noise- 

 lessly, and his chances of obtaining a shot in such surroundings are much 

 more doubtful than they are when an opportunity is given him in a cleaner 

 cover or in following an old logging or ' tote ' road. 



" These paths, as you both know, often extend many miles through the 

 forest, and they may be traversed, if a reasonable degree of care is exercised, 

 in almost complete silence. I have, in thus cautiously following one of them, 

 been able to approach within forty yards of a deer without discovery, and 

 once was so fortunate as to " jump " and shoot a fine buck that was lying 

 in a bunch of ferns hardly fifty feet from where I was standing. It was an 

 incident a little out of the ordinary, an accident that might not occur again 

 in a lifetime, and I always recall it with a sportsman's pride and satisfac- 

 tion. I had been hunting ruffed grouse on that occasion and carried, 

 instead of my rifle, a shot gun, the right barrel of which was loaded with 

 an ordinary grouse charge and the left with an Ely's wire cartridge, a mis- 

 sile that speeds like a bullet for several rods after leaving the gun and then 

 bursts and scatters like a charge of shot. This method of loading I often 

 practise, particularly when I am in a deer country, for it enables me to be 

 always ready for either large game or small. 



" I had stopped to drink from a spring that bubbled up among some 

 rocks by the side of the path, when, with a thundering whirr, three grouse 

 arose and darted away, taking in their flight a course directly over the 

 covert of the deer. I stopped one of the birds with my right barrel and 

 was at the point of discharging the left at another when the deer dashed 

 out of the ferns. 



" That I was completely taken by surprise at his sudden appearance 



