142 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



CAUGHT ON THE JUMP 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



This animated scene was obtained by the deer firing a blank cartridge first, and as they 

 bounded away a released weight discharged the flashlight. Note that the fawn has not yet 

 acquired the quickness and agility of the adult deer. 



if placed in the general direction they are 

 traveling. Such a brush fence, when 

 crossing a number of runways, leads all 

 the migrating animals to a point where 

 the Indian hunter could kill them readily, 

 or when absent a pit covered with brush 

 precipitated the animal to the bottom, in 

 some instances impaled on sharp stakes. 



In 1885, some twelve years after my 

 first experience in hunting the migrating 

 deer, I made what proved unexpectedly 

 to be a last visit. On arriving at one of 

 the favorite crossing places, a barbed- 

 wire fence was found strung for miles, 

 south of the track, and post-holes were 

 ready on the opposite side. It was ap- 

 parent at once that this double barrier 

 would soon terminate the annual migra- 

 tion, and a winter home must thereafter 

 be found along the inhospitable shores of 

 Lake Superior. 



Before putting up the tent, I took a 

 position on a high bank, from which place 

 I saw a deer crossing the track some dis- 

 tance above. I wondered which direction 

 it would take when intercepted by the 

 fence. In a short while the unfortunate 

 animal came ambling along, looking for 

 an opening to the south, when a bullet 

 ended its career. Feeling that such hunt- 

 ing was unfair, I gathered my outfit to- 

 gether and left on the next train. 



Thus ended the deer migration of many 

 centuries. Today all the great runways 

 are obliterated by bushes and fallen trees ; 

 but, contrary to expectation, the deer 

 soon adjusted themselves to their perma- 

 nent home on and near the south shores of 

 the lake. While sometimes in great peril 

 when the snows are deep or crusted, they 

 have, on the whole, a safer place than 

 their former winter retreats in the south, 

 where a largely increased population 

 would soon have taken a greater toll than 

 the timber-wolf or the lawless hunter of 

 the north. 



Facts and fallacies about the: 

 whitl-tail 



There has always been a tendency on 

 the part of some, when describing the 

 white-tail, to illustrate the text with heads 

 bearing an extraordinary number of 

 points, whereas this animal, like the elk, 

 is the only other member of the deer 

 family having a growth of antlers re- 

 markably uniform in size, shape, and 

 number of points. 



Any with thirty to forty tines or half 

 that number are simply freaks and na 

 more typical of the white-tail than one 

 with three legs or two tails. Several mil- 

 lion bucks have been killed in the United 

 States, Canada, and Mexico in the past 



