OCT. 80, 1897.] 
A STRING OF BEADS— 11?. 
Loading all my Bhells with bucksliot I sallied out on tlie 
morning of the let full of hope which did not materialize 
intQ deer, though I hunted hard all day, jumping two 
deer, but getting a glimpse of neither. 
Eeturning by Little Rice Lake, which was now an open 
water lake, the rice stems having been beaten down by 
ducks, I saw a flock of several thousand mallards "mill- 
ing," preparatory of their Southern flight. Slipping down 
to the lake shore I was some 200yd8. from them, but from 
that on the lake was one solid mat of ducks. Holding well 
up, I fired two loads of twelve buckshot each into the 
lake. With the roar of a mighty torrent the ducks rose, 
leaving twelve of their number struggling in the water. 
My ducking boat was still lying oh the lake shore, and 
getting it I retrieve them as the spoil of my first day's deer 
hunt. 
The next five or six days I put in tramping the woods 
in search without result. That there were plenty of deer 
in the woods I was well satisfied, but the ceaseless tramp 
without even getting a glimpse of one discouraged me. 
Ben Lamere, whom I expected to easily excel, had got 
several in the meantime, but complained that still-hunting 
was a mere chance under such circumstances, and pro- 
posed a drive. This just suited me, and the arrangements 
were quickly made. 
The party was to consist of Ben and his two sons, George 
and Ely, his brother Louis, and myself Early next morn- 
ing we were oif for the grounds we intended to hunt. 
After the first day's hunting I had been carrying a Win- 
chester rifle, but concluded a shotgun was better for a drive, 
and so left the rifle at home and took the Parker. In this I 
made a mistake, for I had got only about three-quarters of 
a mile from the house when two deer were sighted cross- 
ing a burn on the side of a hill some 400yd8. away. 
Old Ben opened fire on them, though it was evident he 
had little faith in shooting at a running deer at that dis- 
tance, and after two ineffectual shots he gave it up, though 
the deer were still in plain sight running up the side of 
a hill. 
It fell to Louis Lamere and myself to take the first 
stand. Directing us where and how to go to where two 
large lakes were divided by a couple of hundred yards of 
oak ridge, old Ben said he and the boys would "wait an 
.hour before starting in to drive the intervening woods. 
Louis and I took separate routes in going to our respec- 
tive stations, I going round to the east ^d he the west 
side of the ridge, taking our stations in such manner as to 
command the entire ridge. "It never rains but it pours." 
Before reaching my stand two more deer ran out on the 
top of a hill in front of me about 150yds. away and 
stopped to look. Too far for a shotgun; but what a 
splendid chance if I had only brouglit the rifle. 
Having but meager time to reach my station I kept on 
regardless of the two deer. On arriving at the ridge I 
took my stand beside an old log, seating myself on a bunch 
of leaves and resting my arm and gun across it. I saw 
nothing of Louis, but supposed him to be at his station pn 
the other side of the ridge. 
I expected a long, tedious wait, but in this I was mis- 
taken. I had not been in position to exceed ten minutes 
when I detected something moving down under,, the 
tameracs at the point of the ridge. This I soon made out 
to be two rows of four slender legs each twinkling over 
the moss in my direction while the owners of the legs 
were yet concealed from me by the low-hanging tamarac 
boughs. Deer sure enough, less than 100yds. away, and 
coming straight at me. I had only to push my gun 
slightly forward over the log and raise the breech to my 
shoulder and the deer were covered. When the deer 
arrived at the edge of the swamp they stopped to look. 
They proved to be a doe and a well-grown fawn. They 
were still nearly 50yds. away, and any one who ever used 
them know the pattern of a load of buckshot is very un- 
certain at oOyds. It seemed the better policy to wait for 
them to come still closer, but no sooner had I glanced at 
them across the barrels of my gun than the wild impulse 
to shoot regardless of consequences, which constitutes 
buck fever, seized me, and I pulled the trigger. 
Both deer went down in a heap, the doe struck squarely 
in the center of the forehead, and the fawn with a broken 
neck. It was half an hour before the drivers arrived, when 
we dressed out and hung up the deer. 
The next drive was through a thick tangle of under- 
brush, along a side hill which sloped down to a lake. Old 
Ben took this stand, bidding us to wait twenty minutes for 
him to get into position at the further end "of the lake. 
Louis and the boys scattered along the top of the hill, and 
angled down through toward the upper end of the lake, 
while I went straight through parallel to it. I must have 
waited longer than the rest before starting, for I had gone 
but a short distance when I heard three shots ahead, and 
when I got to the meeting place I foirnd Ben, Louis and 
the two boys engaged in dressing a deer. Ben said there 
were two of them; that he had killed this one at the first 
fire,_and had shot twice more at the other; thought he had 
hit it, but had not examined for blood marks as yet. 
Going to the spot pointed out by Ben as the place where 
he last saw the deer. I found tracks, and 20yds. further on 
the dead deer. Both shots had gone through him, and 
after a few bounds he had dropped dead. 
On the opposite side of the hill we had just drove was an- 
other likely thicket, and we decided to drive it and go home. 
We took a different plan for this drive, Ben following along 
on the top of the hill, and I keeping along the bottom, while 
Louis and the boys kept through the center 100yds. or so 
behind. "It never rains but it pours." We had proceeded 
thus but a short distance, when the thrilling cry, " Watch i 
watch !" came from the drivers, and an instant later I got 
a glimpse of a deer coming angUng down the hill toward 
me. Just above me was a tree that had been blown down 
by the wind, ths trunk remaining on the stump and slant- 
ing to the ground. 
From the course the deer was taking I thought he would 
come through a little opening just beyond this tree-top, 
and I planned to pot him there. But he fooled me, when 
just opposite the fallen tree the deer turned and came 
down the hill straight at me. Though I could tell the 
course he was taking very well, there was no chance to 
shoot for trees and bushes, till he came diving under the 
windfall within 10ft. of me. It was "touch and go" then, 
and when I pulled the trigger the deer's head was within 
5ft. of the muzzle of my gun. Though the deer's head 
was blown to atoms his impetus carried him on down, and 
FOREST ANB STRKAM, 
he struck my feet, which flew from under me, and I came 
down in a heap on my quivering victim. 
There was some giggling when Ben and the rest of them 
arrived, and I explained my adventure. 
We carried the deer over to where the other two were 
hanging, and then to make it more imposing, went and got 
the two I had killed in the morning and hung the whole 
five on one pole. 
We tried driving several times after that one great day, 
but failed to get anything except one deer, which Louis 
killed while acting as driver. 
The crying need of the hour was snow, and we loudly 
bewailed the adverse fortune which sent it not. So it was 
that when we rose one morning and found that about Sin. 
of the emb'em of purity had fallen during the night, there 
was great rejoicing at breakfast, for we anticipated great 
times that day. 
Waiting to hear where the others were going, I took the 
unoccupied field after theii- choice was made, and started 
out, taking the Winchester, for I expected to empty the 
magazine at least three times at the fleeing possibilities. 
The storm had cleared away, the sky was clear and the 
breezes slumbered. Every twig and branch was a-gHtter 
with frost. The display was grand, while 
"Round the glittering wonder bent 
Ttie blue walls of the flrmampnt," 
but I was not after scenery. 
Before I got 300yds. from the house I struct a deer track 
which I followed through many deviotis windings, till I 
came to a place where deer tracks were so thick it was 
impossible to follow any particular track. From that on I 
went by random, occasionally following an individual till 
it was lost in a wilderness of other tracks. 
When night came I had not sighted a single deer, 
though I found at least a half dozen smoking nests after 
the birds had flown. I had often heard that deer when 
lying down to rest would make a detour and lie down 
where they could watch their back tracks. The day's 
tramp proved to me that this is a fact, as I saw it verified, 
in three successive places by their tracks and beds in the 
snow, though the same evidence proved they do not al- 
ways do it. When I got home I found Louis had had the 
same luck as myself, but old Ben had blood on his boots 
when he returned. 
Next morning I started out with a new purpose; I had 
proved one supposed myth to have a sure fotmdation; why 
not another? Somewhere I had read of a man tiring out 
and killing a strong, healthy buck in less than eight 
hours by walking steadily on his trail and keeping him 
moving. I would do the same. I had the good luck to 
jump a doe and two fawns early in the morning and took 
up the trail at once. The second time I jumped them 
they separated, one fawn leading off by himself. I con- 
cluded to follow this fawn, as it would likely be more 
easily tired out. The fawn soon turned and headed for 
the starting place. All day I followed that fawn round 
and round. Five times I followed him over the same 
trail.- Three times he laid down and apparently had a 
good, long rest. 
Twice I found where he had taken the back track for 
half a mile, turning off when he heard me coming. Each 
time I followed on to the turning point before discovering 
the trick. Several times I had trouble in following him, 
on account of a superabundance of tracks, but my quarry 
being on the jump I succeeded in tracing him. All this 
time I got sight of him but once as he flashed through an 
opening in the wood. 
When he started in the morning his jumps averaged 
about 15ft., and I noted with pleasure when they were 
reduced to 12. This he kept up most of the day, but when 
I jumped him the last time it seemed to dawn on him 
that there was something on his track, and he started in a 
straight line for the far-away, and when I left the track at 
dusk he was clearing ISft. at every bound. 
There was much amusement at Lamere's that night 
when I told of my chase. Lest the man who walked down 
the buck might say I must be a poor walker, I hereby 
challenge him to a walking match from New York to San 
Francisco, he to pay all the expenses and I to harvest the 
glory, and he can satisfy himself as to that. 
Now the fact is, I knew in the beginning that I could 
not tire out a deer, for I well knew that a deer in ten 
minutes' run could get far enough ahead to have an 
hour's rest before I arrived and be fresh for another race 
when I got there. But my chance for a shot was just as 
good in following his track as anywhere else, and I also had 
hopes that he, being only a fawn, might make some blun- 
ders and give me a shot. 
I suppose the idea of walking down a deer came from 
the old theory that a man can tire out a dog. This theory 
or statement, which I took for granted from childhood up 
becatise some one said so, has no foundation in fact. Of 
course a man can tire out a dog if the dog be hunting and 
goes ten miles to the man's one; but let the man follow in 
the dog's footsteps and the dog would die of old age M'ait- 
ing for the man to get there, and so would a deer. 
By this time the school had begun for the winter in the 
Lamere district, and the echoolmarm boarded with them, 
and we had high old times playing .six-handed cinch. This 
added something to the pleasure of the hunt, but was fully 
offset by the schoolmarm's critical examination of my 
boots for blood when I returned empty-handed, and her 
supreme indifference when success had crowned my 
efibrts. 
The next time I started on a hnnt it was with small ex- 
pectations of success. There had been a slight thaw, how- 
ever, and the snow was in excellent condition for tracking, 
its softened surface giving back no sound at the pressure of 
afoot. It was no trouble to strike a trail in those woods, 
the only trouble being to find a place where tracks were so 
few that ah individual trail might be followed. Deer, like 
rabbits, seldom lie by near where they have spent the 
night capering and feeding about; but take each their sep- 
arate way and lie by in some isolated place. This only 
applies to early winter, as when deep snows prevent their 
traveling they gather in yards to spend the winter. Cir- 
cling a playground, where the snow was dotted by tracks 
like a sheepyard, 1 took an individual leading off and fol- 
lowed it. Here and there the trail wound, over hill and 
hollow and through swamp and thicket, till I began to 
think it would never stop. Finally the track turned into 
a ravine, up which I followed it a long distance, when it 
turned squarely up the bank. Cautiously I cUmbed the 
bank, expectant, though I know not why* 
343 
The first thing I saw on reaching the top of the em- 
bankment was a deer bobbing across a wide "slashing" in 
front of me. There was about ten acres of fallen timber, 
laid low by wind or fire, over which the deer had to go 
before reaching the standing timber beyond. There was 
also between me and the fleeing deer a thick bunch of 
poplars which the storm king had spared. These inter- 
fered greatl}'- with my aim, their long, slender branchless 
boles covering more than half the space in front of me, but 
I opened fire. One, two, three, four, five, six times the 
crack of ray rifle rang through the forest, and then the 
deer disappearing in the standing timber, I stopped the 
cannonade. I could see the splinters fly from the poplars 
as I fired, and I knew most of my shots had gone wrong. 
On examination I found where four of the bullets had 
passed through trees 4 to 6in. in diameter; this left two 
possibilities unaccounted for. 
_ When I started on after the deer I had gone but a short 
distance when I became conscious of a deer lying half 
concealed behind a treetop and not 20yd8. away. Know- 
ing that if I stopped and turned to look at him he would 
be off in an instant, I kept on dropping the barrel of my 
rifle across my right arm and bringing it to bear on him, 
keeping on as if to pass him. When I got to a favorable 
point I stopped and raised the breech of the gun to my 
left shoulder. When T halted I could sae the hair on the 
old fellow's neck rise and stand straight up, but he did 
not move. Raising my right arm I brought the rifle to a 
level, without taking the barrel in my hand or turning 
round, and aiming an inch below the butt of the horn, 
just between the eye and ear, pulled the trigger. With 
one mighty bound the deer lande'l in a heap' 10ft. away 
and an adventurous life was closed. 
He was much too large for me to hang whole, and so 
saddled him and hung the separate parts in the grove that 
had erstwhile intercepted my bullets. 
When I started on again I took the track of the deer I 
had fired the six shots at, without any definite idea of 
what I was to accomplish by it, I had gone but a few 
hundred yards, when I almost stumbled over its carcass 
lying dead on the snow. One of the bullets had struck it 
in the flank and ranged through to the opposite shoulder. 
Death had apparently came to it in midair, for the carcass 
was lying full 20ft. from the last tracks in the snow. 
As I was working with this deer I fell to wondering 
how it came to lie down without guarding its back track. 
Returning, I examined the ground and found the deer I 
had been trailing had not stopped in the windfall at all, 
but had crossed it and gone into the timber beyond. The 
two deer I did kill had each came from different direc- 
tions and had laid down close together by a mere chance. 
"It never rains but it pours," and the trumps I held that 
night in the cinch game were a fright to see, and thus my 
outing ended in a blaze of glory. E, P. Jaques. 
GENE.SEO, 111. 
MY FIRST GROUSE NEST. 
Lowell, Masa., Oct. 9.— A love of tb-3 woods, with their 
ever-beautiful and varying colors, the many sweet odors that 
delight the sense of smell, the weird music of the leaves in 
their never ceasing quarrel with the winds, the matchless 
effect of light in the tracing of shadows, the ripple and gur- 
gle of crystal waters, the many voices of animal, bird and 
insect life — all these furnishecl an irresistible charm, that 
1 ke a magnet would cause me, away back in the early sixties 
when 1 was only a little boy of ten years, to wander off alone 
far into the big woods, sometimes miles from the settlement,- 
much to the concern of my parents and friends of the family. 
Numtrous and ingenious methods of punishment were tried 
without avail; but as I always turned up at night with cheer- 
ful regularity to receive advice and more solid arguments, it 
soon became on old story, and long before I reached my teens 
I was less worried about, while our family were ransacking 
all the old traditions and wondering if a visit from some 
friendly St. Francis Indians at our home just previous to my 
advent on this sphere had had anything to do with my bush- 
loving proclivities. 
There came a beautiful day in spring, when the birds, tir- 
ing of winter's icy clasp, were bursting to greet a warmer 
sun; the grass on the sunny slopes was beginning to look 
green; along the little brooks the skunk cabbages were 
pushing up through the winter covering of springy ooze; 
and the birds, so long strangers, were back with us once 
again. The morning found a little boy absent from school, 
while the teacher, obeying instructions, took notes of the 
matter for sending to the head of our family, who received 
much sympathy and advice regarding the behavior of his 
oldest son. I was some two miles in back of the settlement 
peering under a clump of ground hemlock growing by the 
side of an old log, to discover what an old partridge was do- 
ing there. The bird had just taken flight and a nest was 
found filled with eggs, in fact, too many for counting, and 
what appeared to be a whole capful. Here, indeed, was a 
prize; not only did I want the egg=, but the mother of the 
prospective brood. Plans were immediately laid for her 
capture whea again she returned to the nest, 
A careful survey of the premises was taken and I de- 
parted, only to come back in about two or three bours 
to capture the grouse. During this short time visions of 
many grouse hatched out at home, kept and bred on a large 
scale, were mentally photographed on my mind, and Uncle 
Eben, who was a great bear and deer hunter, and used to 
trap sable, mink, otter and foxes, besides gathering wonder- 
ful quantities of spruce gum, would turn green with envy 
when he beheld my grouse farm. Uncle Eben also used to 
shoot many partridges, and he was ably assisted by Hunter, 
a small yellow cur of unknown breed. He had a sharp, 
yelping bark which, together with his taway color, was 
noted as a wonderful dog in his day. Please note the color, 
none other was considered good for a partridge-treeing dog, 
as the birds refused to tree well, and be contented to stand 
with outstretched necks while being shot out, lowermost 
ones first, until the whole flock were killed. Hunter also 
was noted aa a woodchuck dog, but as Uncle Eben had an 
enormous appetite that hankered for game early as July 
each year. Hunter did not have much time to hunt wood- 
chucks or other varmints that made him smell too strong 
for company in the house. 
With all my plans and details in mind, it is little wonder 
that, after hanging my little cap on a bush, and creeping 
along on bands m<X knees, which became wet from moisture 
V 
