On Getting Acquainted 



any wild creature before he comes within speak- 

 ing distance; so I took my friend and his camera 

 along without faith, hoping for the best. 



Our stand was a hardwood ridge where deer often 

 passed on their way to the lake, and we had been 

 sitting there hardly an hour when I saw a young 

 spikebuck coming down the runway. The next 

 moment there was a gasping "Oh, there's a deer!" 

 from the man who had been warned to keep 

 mentally still. Then began the inevitable tinker- 

 ing with the camera, which had been thrice pre- 

 pared and was still as unready as all its kind. 

 More than once I had sat in that precise spot 

 while deer passed at a distance of three or four 

 yards without noticing me ; but now the little buck 

 caught an uneasy motion and halted with head 

 high and eyes flashing. If ever there was a chance 

 for a wonderful picture, he offered it; but he did 

 not like the focusing, or whatever it was, and 

 after endless delay the camera clicked on a white 

 flag bobbing among the shadows, where it looked 

 in the negative like a smear of sunlight. 



The camera reminds me of another way of ap- 

 proaching deer, a way often followed by summer 

 campers; namely, by chasing the swimming ani- 

 mal in a canoe. I have but one word to say of such 

 a method, and that is, Don't! When a deer is 



[189] 



