THE VIRGINIA DEER. 191 



Nimrod througlioiit the whole region. He offered to give 

 me all the Deer-shooting I wanted if I would go with him, 

 sol took a half -day's ride with him to his cabin in the 

 mountains. Near his house was a bed of white clay that 

 had been exposed by hydraulic miners. On the bluff above 

 this was a large pine-tree, and in this a platform or box had 

 been built. I inquired as to its use, and was told that I 

 would find out before long. There was yet no sign of dawn 

 when we started out with our rifles, the next morning, and 

 what was my surprise to see that the Nimrod carried a pair 

 of blankets with him. Did he intend to si)end the next 

 night in the wilderness, or did he intend to blindfold his 

 game and lead it home? Neither. He simply w^ent to that 

 pine-tree, climbed up to the box, by means of pegs that he 

 had inserted during his leisure hours, and, wrapping the 

 blankets about him, dozed as contentedly as though he were 

 in bed. As soon as it was light, a couple of Deer came down 

 the trail to the clay-bed, where they had a "lick." They 

 were not thirty yards from us as we peered over the top of 

 the box, and as our rifles cracked together, both fell in 

 their tracks. That was enough for me. Such work is not 

 sport, but butchery. 



The woods of Northern New York and New England 

 are i3ractically hunted out. Sportsmen from the large 

 cities, provided with all the comforts and api^liances of civ- 

 ilization, visit these resorts, and they are bound to secure 

 some trophies, regardless of either method or law. 



Good shooting may be had in Minnesota, where Virgin- 

 ianus is so abundant as to be, in many places, a nuisance 

 to the farmer. Deer infest the voung wheat-fields and 

 vegetable-patches of the Scandinavian homesteaders, who 

 lie in wait for them with old-fashioned muzzle-loading mus- 

 kets heavily charged with buckshot. The Deer do their 

 feeding i)iiii('ipally at night, spending the day-time in the 

 thickets. As soon as acorns are ripe, they travel on the 

 ridges at night and live among the Jack-oaks. 



Mr. J. H. Beatty says: "The bucks make 'scrapes' in 

 the open woods, which they visit at night to see if the does 



