130 FOREST CREATURES. 



grazing and seemingly very comfortable ; and yet when 

 I shot him, I found so many bullet-wounds in his body, 

 that I should fear to give the number lest the statement 

 might be pronounced a fable. 



This reminds me of a circumstance which shows in 

 how strange a manner a bullet will sometimes be di- 

 verted from its original direction into a quite different 

 one. I stalked a particularly fine buck and fired. He 

 bounded away, and I went to the spot where he had 

 been standing to look if there were any traces of blood 

 upon the grass. I could find none. As the buck had 

 stood close to a plank paling when I fired, I examined 

 the boards to see if I could discover the mark of my 

 bullet on any of them. I presently found the round 

 indenture it had made ; for it had not gone through the 

 board, which it certainly would have done had it not 

 first struck some other intervening object. I still 

 followed the traces of the buck in hopes to find proofs 

 that he was hit, but always in vain ; when, on looking up, 

 there sat the buck, with head erect and still alive, some 

 hundred yards off. He therefore had been hit, though 

 no blood was to be found ; and my bullet having passed 

 through his body, had made but the slight indenture 

 on the paling beside him. Another shot and he rolled 

 over quite dead. On examination I found that my 

 bullet had struck high up a little behind the shoulder ; 

 but on turning him over could not possibly find where 



