CARIACUS VIRCJINIANUS. ^ IjS 



vision, to quicken the hearing, and to impart to the whole system 

 ao-low of health and vigor. It calls into play the exercise of 

 functions that are apt to be neglected by the student and man of 

 business, and inspires the lover of nature with a zeal and enthusi- 

 asm not easily extinguished. 



In addition to the three foregoing legitimate (!) methods of 

 hunting the Deer, there are sometimes practised here two other 

 ways of killing-— I might better say butchering— that are too des- 

 picable even to be spoken of without a feeling of shame. They 

 are : by means of licks, and by crusting. 



A lick is a place where salt is put,* and the supply from time to 

 time replenished. The Deer, being exceedingly fond of salt, after 

 having once discovered the place, repair to it with great regu- 

 larity. When they have visited the lick nightly for some little time, 

 which is ascertained by examining the ground round about for 

 tracks, the murderous pot-hunter, armed with a double-barrelled 

 gun loaded with buck-shot, secretes himself at dusk behind some 

 convenient covert, or in a neighboring tree, and in silence awaits 

 the approach of his unsuspecting victim. 



Crusting is a method of destruction that is still more unfair and 

 atrocious than that just described, and is only practised by the 

 most worthless and depraved vagabonds. It depends, fortunately, 

 upon a condition of the deep snows that is usually of short dura- 

 tion, and rarely occurs save in the months of February and March. 

 When the snow averages four or five feet in depth on the level, a 

 thaw, followed by a freeze, converts the surface into a stiff crust 

 which renders the Deer very helpless. Taking advantage of this 

 state of things, the crust-hunters sally forth. Their snow-shoes 

 enable them to skim lightly over the surface, whilst the poor Deer 



* The only natural deor-lick in ihc Ailiiondacks, so far as I am aware, is thus spoken of by Mr. 

 Colvin "I observed in a moist place a deposit of marly clay, a rare thing in this re^non. What 

 was most interesting, however, was the fact that this was a natural deer-lick, many places showing 

 where the V>t<tx had licked the clay, possibly obtaining a trifle of potash, alumina, and iron, derived 

 from sulphates from decomposing pyrites." (Report of the Adirondack Survey, lS8o, p. 193.) 



