254 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



could now hear Webster chopping firewood at our 

 camp, not far ahead, I did not think it likely that 

 the wily old buck would have passed that point, so 

 making a wide circuit, I took up a position in the 

 middle of a thick wood, just on the bank of a small 

 frozen stream. Graham I knew would presently come 

 quietly on the deer's tracks, and once more put him 

 U p though he always got off without becoming 

 visible to his tracker. Would he at last come past 

 me? and should I hit him bounding if he did? were 

 the questions which I was putting to myself when 

 suddenly I saw him. 



He was coming through the scrubby rather open 

 bush, straight towards me, in a series of great leaps, 

 rising, I think, quite four feet from the ground at 

 every bound. I stood absolutely still, thinking to fire 

 at him just as he jumped the stream and passed me. 

 However, he came so straight to me that had he 

 held his course he must have jumped on to or over 

 me. But when little more than the width of the 

 stream separated us when he was certainly not 

 more than ten yards from me he either saw or 

 winded me, and without a moment's halt made a pro- 

 digious leap sideways. I fired at him when he was 

 in the air, and I believe quite six feet above the 

 ground. I had the sight fairly on him when I 

 pulled the trigger, and he was so very near me that 

 it would have required a very bad shot to have 

 missed him, though to hit a white-tailed deer when 



