l;OE, .MUSK ANl) SIKA. y 



A party of us were travelling' through Shensi, and had readied 

 a belt of wild country south of Yen-an Fu, where the once cultivated 

 terraces liad gowo Imclc tf) wilderness. Here roedeer and small game 

 were extremely jileutiful, while there wci'e not wanting signs of vrild 

 boar, wolves and even panthers. Akeady the members of the party 

 had liad splendid sport, seven deer having been accounted for in two 

 days. On the tldrd day two of us were riding bcliind the caravan, 

 which was winding along the top of a high ridge, when we saw a 

 roedeer quietly feeding in a deep valley on our left. As we would 

 soon be out of tlie ^\'ild country, and both wished to add another deer 

 to our bag, \ve decided to go after this one. Accordingly we turned 

 off the road, and tying our ponies in a thicket, we crept down a water 

 cut, keeping well out of si,r;ht o! our quarry. Jimmy, my pointer, in- 

 sisted on following, and dutifully kept close at my heels. Without 

 much difficulty we reached the shoulder of a ridge, which we had to 

 cross. Now \ye liad to exercise the utmost care, for flic bare slope 

 was in full view of the deer. Good luck was with us, for during our 

 passage the deer did not raise its head once, and soon we dropped 

 silently down into the tall brush' of the valley. It was all I could do 

 with fiercely whispered injunctions to keep Jimmy from dashing off, 

 for he, too, had spotted the deer. Each step brought us nearer to our 

 quarry, which wo glimpsed now and then through gaps in the under- 

 brush. Twice we found ourselves up to our armpits in deep snow 

 drifts. At last, after crossinp^ a bare terrace flat upon oiu' bellies, we 

 arrived' at a low hedge which I had noted as being within twenty yards 

 of the deer, and T gave the siftn to m.y cojnpanion to be ready. As 

 we cleared the sheltering scrub up bouirded the deer from almost 

 under our feet. Bans'! bang! went om' rifles, and the buck spra)ig 

 into the air, turned a somersaidt and lay dead. On the instant an- 

 other buck broke cover, and again oiu* rifles rang out. It staggered, 

 but recovered itself and was crashing away through the hushes when 

 Jimmy, unable to restrain himself another moment, sprang forward. 

 With a few hounds he ovei'took the wounded deer and springing for 

 its throat brouplit it down headlong in the snow. 



A method of huntiuf; the roedeer, which has been tried with great 

 success by one local sportsman in the forests of West Rhansi, is that 

 adopted in the Phillipines and elsewhere where the jungle or foi'ests 

 are too dense for open stalkinfr. This is with the use of a flash lantern, 

 fastened in the cap or on the right wrist, so that the beam of light is 

 directed forward along tlie rifle barrel. This method can only be 

 used at night, wlien any deer within two hundred yards, looking to- 

 wards the light betrays its presence by the bright reflection from the 



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