468 AUDUBON 



of the game. He advances again, but how very slowly ! 

 He has reached the declivity, upon which the sun shines 

 in all its growing splendor; but mark him! he takes the 

 gun from his shoulder, has already thrown aside the 

 leathern cover of the lock, and is wiping the edge of the 

 flint with his tongue. Now he stands like a monumental 

 figure, perhaps measuring the distance that lies between 

 him and the game which he has in view. His rifle is 

 slowly raised, the report follows, and he runs. Let us run 

 also. Shall I speak to him, and ask him the result of this 

 first essay? Assuredly, reader, for I know him well. 



" Pray, friend, what have you killed? " for to say, " What 

 have you shot at?" might imply the possibility of having 

 missed, and so might hurt his feelings. " Nothing but a 

 buck." "And where is it? " " Oh, it has taken a jump or 

 so, but I settled it, and will soon be with it. My ball 

 struck, and must have gone through his heart." We ar- 

 rive at the spot where the animal had laid itself down 

 among the grass in a thicket of grape-vines, sumach, and 

 spruce bushes, where it intended to repose during the 

 middle of the day. The place is covered with blood, the 

 hoofs of the Deer have left deep prints in the ground, as 

 it bounced in the agonies produced by its wound ; but the 

 blood that has gushed from its side discloses the course 

 which it has taken. We soon reach the spot. There lies 

 the buck, its tongue out, its eye dim, its breath exhausted ; 

 it is dead. The hunter draws his knife, cuts the buck's 

 throat almost asunder, and prepares to skin it. For this 

 purpose he hangs it upon the branch of a tree. When the 

 skin is removed, he cuts off the hams, and abandoning the 

 rest of the carcass to the Wolves and Vultures, reloads his 

 gun, flings the venison, enclosed by the skin, upon his back, 

 secures it with a strap, and walks off in search of more 

 game, well knowing that, in the immediate neighborhood, 

 another at least is to be found. 



Had the weather been warmer, the hunter would have 



