Deer- Hunting. 239 



ble portions of the flesh, unless hunger or a near market 

 induces them to carry off the hams. 



" The mode of destroying deer hy Jire-Hght, or, as it is 

 named in some parts of the country, forest-light, never 

 fails to produce a very singular feeling in him who wit- 

 nesses it for the first time. There is something in it which 

 at times ajDpears awfully grand. At other times a cer- 

 tain degree of fear creeps over the mind, and even affects 

 the physical powers of him who follows the hunter through 

 the thick undergrowth of our woods, having to leap his 

 horse over hundreds of huge fallen trunks, at one time 

 impeded by a straggling grape-vine crossing his path, at 

 another squeezed between two stubborn saplings, whilst 

 their twigs come smack in his face, as his companion has 

 forced his way through them. Again, he every now and 

 then runs the risk of breaking his neck by being suddenly 

 pitched headlong on the ground, as his horse sinks into a 

 hole covered over with moss. But I must proceed in a 

 more regular manner, and leave you, kind reader, to judge 

 whether such a mode of hunting would suit your taste or 

 not. 



" The hunter has returned to his camp or his house, 

 has rested, and eaten his game'. He has procured a 

 quantity of pine-knots filled with resinous matter, and has 

 an old frying-pan, that, for aught I know to the contrary, 

 may have been used by his great-grandmother, in which 

 the pine-knots are to be placed when lighted. The horses 

 stand saddled at the door. The hunter comes forth, his 

 rifle slung on his shoulder, and springs upon one of 

 them, while his son or a servant mounts the other, with 

 the fiying-pan and the pine-knots. Thus accoutred, they 

 proceed towards the interior of the forest. When they 

 have arrived at the spot where the hunt is to begin, they 

 strike fire with a flint and steel, and kindle the resinous 

 wood. The person who carries the fire moves in the di- 



