244 FIELD SHOOTING. 



firo to it, if no one i.i awake to look after it, And 

 twice my tent caught fire in the daytime, ■when 

 we thought there was no danger, and went off 

 hunting with no one left at camp. Therefore I 

 say to every one who means to camp out on 

 sporting excursions, get a nice little stove. The 

 cost is small, the comfort large, and, except through 

 gross carelessness, there can he no danger what- 

 ever. 



To give a description of the common deer of 

 this country would be mere folly and imperti- 

 nence. It is often supposed that it likes best to 

 range in the vast forests, but I believe that to be 

 a mistake. Deer are most fond of a country in 

 which there are belts of timber-land and brush 

 interspersed with prairies and savannas. Much 

 of that part of Illinois where I lived at first is 

 somewhat of that character. When I first went 

 to the State, deer were exceedingly plentiful. I 

 have myself seen as many as thirty in a herd, and 

 men who had lived a long time in that part of 

 Illinois, when I went to reside there, told me they 

 had seen herds which could not have contained 

 less than seventy-five. In the cold weather the 

 deer went to the timber for shelter. In the warm 

 weather they did not go much to the woodland 



