262 With Rod and Gun in Nezv England 



Restful sleep, appetite and digestion, and blazing birchwood fires solve the 

 question, " Is life worth living " ? 



There are scarcely any Maine forests, however tangled they may 

 appear, which do not possess pleasant and accessible reaches or park-like 

 valleys and hillsides, or rounded ridges of hardwood growth or pine, allow- 

 ing comfortable traveling for the stalker. Possessed with the unerring 

 compass and a tolerable familiarity with the region-marks, he advances upon 

 the proposed line, which may include some miles of circuit. There must be 

 an object in all efforts to give zest, whether we walk, drive, sail, bike or 

 shoot ; somewhere to go, something to realize. So with the deer-stalker, his 

 primary object is to get deer, and it matters little, in one sense, if he succeed 

 or not, and the latter is generally the case. But if he is of an appreciative 

 cast, the surroundings are inhabited with charming life and enjoyment. 



As the autumnal weather grows cooler, the deer are found more in 

 the open growth, and range about extensively. It is the approach of the 

 mating season, and frequently seen are the saplings with scarred bark, 

 caused by the whetting of antlers preparatory to rival encounters. Here 

 and there are bare spots and scattered deadwood which have been pawed 

 in the impatient spirit of combat. 



The deer, timid as supposed, is possessed of an indomitable and 

 persistent courage in conflict with its own kind, and will fight to the 

 extremity of weakness and even death before yielding. The stalker has 

 witnessed many scenes where the trampled ground and broken shrubs 

 indicate desperate encounters. One spot I lately observed which indicated 

 a meeting of particular ferocity. I had tracked a large buck through eight 

 inches of snow. The buck had evidently found several others in conflict, 

 and being a free lance, and at a free fight, had immediately engaged. The 

 snow was completely crushed and tumbled over an area somewhat larger 

 than an ordinary circus-ring, and it was decidedly apparent that a stag- 

 circus of unusual magnitude had occurred without the supervision of a 

 ring-master, or the encouraging plaudits of spectators. I counted five 

 departing trails, and the performance had probably terminated several 

 hours prior to my arrival. Probably one by one the vanquished had de- 

 parted, until the acknowledged champion held the field. Such seems to 

 have been the case, as the trails were diverging. One champion exhibited 

 the hasty and ludicrous method of his exit by leaping over a broken tree 

 six feet in height, when a projecting fracture had creased his body the 

 whole length in passing, leaving a bountiful handful of hair and fragmentary 

 cuticle in evidence. This might be accounted a feeling instance of the 

 P. P. C. order of etiquette with the cervus family. The trampled area 

 was flecked with enough hirsute scrapings to fill a good-sized pillow, with 

 occasional spatterings of scarlet coloring. 



