516 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 
to know something of the how, the wherefore and the when 
of all these methods—for nothing is more certain than that 
you,can get this game, and an abundance of it, if you only 
go at the right time, and seek it in the right way. ° 
The two favorite methods of taking deer are running them 
into the lake, and hunting them on the crust—the first for 
summer and fall, the other for winter, of course. 
The proper time for the first method is about the beginning 
of September—when the down is off their horns, and they 
are getting into the “blue coat.” That is—the season may 
be said to be then commenced, for, of course, the deer are 
improving every day. In three weeks more they will be 
“seal fat,” and will take to the water almost as soon as you 
start them. This sport continues until the lakes freeze over, 
when bunting on the crust takes its place. 
Driving on the run-ways is not much practiced here, for 
the run-ways are so numerous that it requires a large company 
to man them all, which must be done in most instances to 
insure sport, since it is next to impossible to tell through 
which of them all the deer will pass a second time. 
But as I could at any time start a deer within half a mile 
of where I then quartered, at a rude farm house near a small 
lake, and that within the hour, too, by the help of the old 
hound, Ring, it is not to be wondered at that I have several 
times succeeded, with all the uncertainty, in getting a deer 
on the run-way. None but a native, with his fly-proof skin, 
can ever do much at ‘still hunting” here, so long as the, 
warm weather lasta,—for as the whole success of this hunt 
depends upon your preserving the most perfect and statue-like 
stillness, it requires a test of heroism which I could never 
biing myself up to meet. It is easy enough to find where 
the deer are, and even to catch a glimpse of them or hear 
them as they run off, but your hands must be going so 
incessantly, for the protection of your excoriated face and 
neck, that the wary and keen-sighted creatures are almost 
