June 18, 1891.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



431 



Sliort Charles was feeling pretty blue over tte loss of 

 his fawn, and Long Charles was rather inclined to twit 

 him on it; but the rest of us prudently forbore, not 

 knowing how soon our own turn might come. Jake 

 Lordson again came down from McClellan's, and we 

 arranged the morrow's stands before turning in. 



The weather of the following day was simply superb — 

 a dreamy Indian summer day, drunken with sunshine. 

 The party divided as usual, three going above the falls 

 and five below. The first race which any of us heard 

 was run by old Jube late in the afternoon. He drove a 

 large doe down just back of the Haybank, where I was 

 stationed; but the deer winding me turned and ran down 

 to the slew at Palmer Brook. John, whose ardor for 

 long shots was now somewhat abated, was again stationed 

 at his favorite ground, and this time let the deer come 

 down into the river. Then, as he began to fire, buck 

 fever seized him with its insiduous grip, and, as he after- 

 ward expressed it, "One leg was as firm as a rock, but 

 the other one shook as if it had the palsy." Affected as 

 he was with this distressingly uncertain kind of equilib- 

 rium, it is little wonder that the worthy John fired five 

 times at his doe without touching it. Then, as the 

 frightened animal began to recede further and further 



oor one) is that he saw nothing else In the shape of a 

 eer during the whole trip. 



Then followed a period of hard luck for the entire 

 party, during which our supply of venison got very low, 

 and we should have had to go back to canned meat at 

 last if Long Charles had not followed the Scribe's 

 example and shot another fawn. Curiously enough, be 

 it remarked with respect to this fawn, it gave the hereto- 

 fore calm Bostonian a bad fit of the tremors, so that it 

 cost him fifteen shots to bring it to bag, and he would 

 not have done it then hadnot the fawn, which had safely 

 reached shore, come back into the river again to see 

 what made the water yeast and fizzle so. 



On the tenth day Trail and Hector both drove deer into 

 a big swamp above the rapids, which, owing to high 

 water, afforded an excellent opportunity for the game to 

 play back and forth, constantly throwing the dogs off the 

 scent. After the dogs had filled the swamp with music 

 from 11 A. M. until 4 P. M., Short Charles left his station 

 at the outlet of the swamp to come to me, I being sta- 

 tioned at the watch-ground above without a boat. Hardly 

 had he taken me in when both dogs swept down toward 

 the outlet of the swamp. We hastened down stream, but 

 too late. The deer had taken to water long before we 



bushes not two rods from Mr. J., and with one leap dis- 

 appeared in the thicker woods beyond. As soon as J. had 

 recovered sufliciently to catch his breath, he went back 

 for the dog, put him on the fresh scent and returned to 

 his watch-ground. But the doe never came back. Some 

 of the party were heartless enough to hint that she lay 

 down in the bushes, like the rest of us, to escape J.'s wild 

 balls. 



The thirteenth day was a lucky day, in spite of itg 

 ominous number and a drizzling rain. Ben Moody, who 

 had been called home by his wife's sickness, and had sent 

 us John Slater, returned from Saranac Lake the preced- 

 ing evening, and we had two guides to put out dogs. 

 Ben himself shot one of the deer running in the woods, 

 and Short Charles abundantly retrieved his reputation by 

 dropping another at the outlet of the big "slew" or 

 swamp above the rapids. The deer came squarely upon 

 him while he was sitting meditatively under his rubber 

 blanket, with no dog in hearing. The deer and the man 

 gazed astonished in each other's eyes for a moment, and 

 then the man threw off his rubber blanket with a quick 

 movement and raised his gun to his shoulder. The deer 

 wheeled, but too late. A bullet went crashing through 

 her brain, and she fell in her tracks without a struggle. 



AT EAELY DAWN IN THE NORTH WOODS. From Photograph bt Mr. A. Ames Howlett. 



from him, he declares that he slammed the butt of his 

 rifle down on the ground, said to himself, "See here, 

 John R., brace up; you are acting like a fool," raised his 

 rifle again, took deliberate aim and bored the deer 

 through the brain with the sixth shot. To his intense 

 sm'prise the animal immediately sank. He fired a signal 

 of distress that brought the boat next him, and together 

 they looked the water over without finding a sign of the 

 doe. In about an hour, while the search was still going 

 on, a boat coming up the river informed them that the 

 watcher at the Short Draw had just ptiUed a floating deer 

 ashore. Down to the Short Draw rowed John as fast as 

 oars could take him and found that the Ampersand man 

 had indeed rescued his doe, having seen it coming down 

 stream with just an ear above water. That night John 

 w^as jubilant, as he had to retuirn to Rutland the next 

 day. and realized that he had got his venison just in 

 time. 



On Wednesday, the succeeding day, our guide had to 

 take John out to Saranac Lake, so two of the boys, Frank 

 and Short Charles, determined to see what they could do 

 in the way of putting out the dogs. They took com- 

 passes and lunch and started out eastward by the Dawson 

 Pond trail: and, so far as the rest of us who watched 

 could see, they did quite as well as a guide to the manner 

 born. All the dogs were started, but only one drove to 

 water in the river, and that one brought in a fawn, which 

 was shot by the Scribe, whose only excuse (admittedly a 



got there, and the dogs were standing up to their necks 

 in the stream sniiSng the breeze and howling. We 

 caught them off and took them down to the carry in the 

 boat. 



The eleventh day was another Sunday, and was spent 

 much as the previous one had been, except that PVank 

 and Short Charles took one of the boats and went on a 

 trip of exploration up Moose Creek. They reported a 

 wild and beautiful country, with deer signs plentiful. 



Our party was now augmented by the arrival of an 

 eighth man, who came just in time to fill the large space 

 left vacant by the departing John. This new member 

 was Will J., one of the famous Vermont creamery butter 

 men, who knew oleomargarine as far as he could see it, 

 and hated it further. On Monday we gave Mr. J. the 

 watch-ground at the Meadow, and fortune favored or 

 rather tantalized him by sending in a fine doe just below 

 his stand and half-way down the Haybank. Mr. J. began 

 firing at 80yds., and kept it up as long as the doe was in 

 sight, and probably some seconds after, as wild balls 

 singing among the ti-ees down the river caused at least 

 three cautious watchers to lie flat on the ground until the 

 fusilade ceased. J. pursued his vanished deer on foot as 

 far down as the Haybank, where two outside parties, a 

 young lady and gentleman from Wardner's, were watch- 

 ing. They showed him where the doe had left the water, 

 and J. went in to investigate. Suddenly and without the 

 least particle of warning up jumped the doe from some 



Short Charles was not twitted by Long Charles that 

 evening. The latter had sat all day in a windy, exposed 

 place, where nothing ran or swam except his nose. He 

 had escaped buck fever, but came near having the 

 chills. 



The fourteenth day was cold and overcast, but no rain 

 fell. Frank, who had not as yet seen a deer, went up to 

 Moose Creek and took his stand where the streams meet. 

 He declared that at one time during the day he heard 

 fifteen doga go by in a string, with a raven at the head of 

 the line and a bird dog at the tail. He thought then that 

 there was surely blood in the air, but if the raven smelled 

 it, it was certainly not in the vicinity of Moose Creek, for 

 the procession passed on out of hearing, and primeval 

 silence settled down upon the woods again. No deer were 

 shot this day, so far as we could learn. Three or four 

 parties had dogs out below, and there was a very large 

 party hounding at Long Lake, above. Henry said that 

 the woods were so full of dogs the deer could not get 

 through them to reach the water. 



The fifteenth day was cold and overcast, with a sug- 

 gestion of snow in the air. Not a dog had come back to 

 camp from yesterday's long races except old Jube, and 

 consequently he was the only hope of seven anxious men. 

 Mr. J. went out on this day, taking one of the guides 

 with him. Ben Moody ptit old Jube out on the big hill 

 near the head of the carry, and he drove the first large 

 buck of the trip into the lucky Long Charles, at the head 



