A BUCK. 135 



very common to save the gunpowder by catching the deer 

 over the head or horns with a long birch sapling withed 

 in a noose at the end, and then press the head under 

 water until absolute drowning is effected. The blood is 

 then let out by a quick cut across the throat. 



Contrast this with our way of hunting in old times, on 

 the banks of Owl Creek, or on the Delaware and the Sus- 

 quehanna. 



How well I remember a breezy morning when the music 

 of the hounds came down the valley of the Delaware, from 

 the hills above the great rapids of the Callicoon. I stood 

 at the run on the west side of the river, a mile above 

 Kellum's, and the deer, after a long run, came down di- 

 rectly before me, on the opposite shore. But he saw me 

 before he took the plunge, and wheeling about went up 

 the precipitous bank, whither my bullet — sent at a long 

 venture — in vain followed him. 



I leaped into the canoe that was lying under the bushes 

 near me, for I knew that the buck was heading down to 

 a lower run, and I went flying down the rapids, swift as 

 the deer was going through the woods behind the hills. 

 We almost met at the lower run ; for I had but leaped 

 from my canoe when he came out of the bushy bank and 

 took the water at a flying leap. The foam dashed high 

 as he pressed across the shallows, and then I shouted 

 after him ; and as he leaped into the air, the ball intended 

 for his fore-shoulder broke the hind-leg below the joint. 



He turned and charged up the shore, first looking as if 

 he would have annihilated me, and thinking better of that 

 took the land a hundred yards below, and, stumbling up 

 the bank, fell as my second ball from old swivel-breech 

 went to the intended spot. 



You will perhaps say my way of killing him was no 



