AMERICAN DEER. 97 



are frequently riven by the frost — echoing through 

 the woods with thundering reverberations, — and a rifle 

 barrel incautiously grasped with the naked hand will 

 adhere to it like red-hot iron. 



The raw sloppy weather, the half-melted heaps of dirty 

 snow in shady corners ; the mud and slush, and dripping 

 trees, characteristic of the British winter, are almost 

 unknown miseries. From month to month the snow 

 rests pure and bright as on the day it fell, the azure 

 sky is without a cloud, and the weather is often so 

 indescribably clear and brilliant, and the atmosphere so 

 exhilarating, as to impel one to almost boisterous 

 mirth. It is probably this that makes the winter so 

 pre-eminently the season of gaiety and enjoyment. 



Braced with renewed energy the deer-stalker packs 

 his sleigh and prepares for work, preferring the keen 

 air and invigorating exercise of the winter "tracking" 

 to the relaxing heat and the clouds of musquitoes 

 which are the accompaniments of autumn hunting. 



His ammunition and creature comforts being stOAved 

 away, and the warm sleigh-robes duly arranged, the 

 snorting horses, with tinkling bells and gay " streamers," 

 speed along the crisp and shining track, bound for the 

 distant deer-forest. Away along the silent roads, that 

 stretch through dark pine woods — away over open clear- 

 ings — through acres of blackened stumps — past solitary 



H 



