10 
THE AMATEUR SPORTSMAN. 
F0RTY=F1RST ANNUAL HUNT OF THE 
ARMSTEAD DEER HUNTING 
CLUB OF VIRGINIA. 
BY THE SECRETARY. 
The club assembled, as usual, in Staunton, Va. After 
providing- the necessary comnaissarj' supplies, horses and 
vehicles for a week's sojourn, we moved out by way of 
Forty-first Annual Hunt of the Arrastead Deer Hunting Club of Virginia. Cavalcade en route to camp, 
the Jennings Gap road for our camp, twenty-two miles 
west. 
We arrived in camp time enough to feed and comfort- 
ably house twenty" men, thirty six horses and twenty- 
two hounds before dark. The following club 
members answered roll call : 
Peyton S. Coles, Albemarle County, Va., 
president ; C L. Fowler, Charlottesville, Va , 
first vice-president; F. B. Moran, Charlottesville, 
Va., second vice-president ; J Thompson Brown, 
Richmond, Va., secretary and treasurer; F. W, 
Robertson, Charlottesville, Va., commissary ; 
Edwjird Coles, Albemarle County, Va.; Hon. 
J:j,mes Lyon, Richmond, Va; George W. Good- 
year, Charlottesville, Va ; F. T. Lerch, Balti- 
ir Jre, Md. 
These reported their invited guests as follows : 
F, P. Parish, Charlottesville, Va.; Hon. Harry 
St. George Tucker, Staunton, Va.; Kev. Dr. 
Walter Q. HuUihen, Staunton, Va. ; John Scotts, 
Scottsville, Va.; W. T. Hancock, Richmond, Va.; 
Edward Scott, Richmond, Va. ; William Durrett, 
W. AV. Waddell, Morris Watson, John Uppleby 
and C.H. Limberick, Charlottesville, Va.; M. R. 
Coalter, West Augusta, Va.; John Montgomery, 
Deerfield, Va. 
The first day in camp was spent in a general 
fixing up and in planning hunts, testing guns, 
preparing ammunition, etc. Here is a class of 
new hunters being instructed by old ones how, 
what and when to shoot, wiiich instruction acts 
as a kind oi antidote for the "buck fever," and at 
the same time determines tlu> best shot among them. 
A dummy deer is used as a target ; but although this 
and every other precaution is taken to prevent the new 
hunters from catching the "buck fever," there is never 
a hunt without the loss of game on account of this epi- 
demic among the " tenderleet " with us. Several on 
this hunt had it to the extent of allowing deer to come 
within twenty paces of them without being dropped. 
The full penalty for this, however, was promptly and 
forcibly exacted on return to camp, to wit : a permanent 
deprivation of a large portion of the rear pendant of the 
nether garment, and this nailed in a conspicuous place on 
the house front among the hides and heads of deer as a 
future preventive against the contagion. 
The convalescent buck fever victim at the window in 
the picture, just after paying the penalty, is from Rich- 
mond, Va., but on condition that he will not be taken 
with a relapse on the next hunt his 
name is mercifully' withheld. 
While another picture shows on]y the 
saddles of five deer (the other portion 
having been devoured by the hungry 
hunters) and two undi-essed deer, yet 
the truth is that onh' three of these 
deer were killed by our camp. Unfor- 
tunately a party' of deer hunters was 
encamped over the divide, and not know- 
ing we were in camp extended their 
standers into our hunting ground. The 
result was that they and not we killed 
all except three deer ; but it was all 
satisfactorily explained and amicably- 
adjusted, save in the instance of a cer- 
tain Richmond lawyer from our camp 
who found his stand occupied by the 
aforesaid hunters. They met alone in 
the mountains, and the question of right 
of possession was immediately raised. 
Judging from the reports of the lawyer 
at camp that night they must have had 
a lively debate. The lawyer, positively 
declining to be made defendant in the 
would-be plaintiff, gained his point and 
by the autliority of the high code of 
case by 
held the 
" bluflf." 
The two 
the 
stand 
unbutchered deer in the picture are trophies 
Forty-first Annual Hunt of the Armstead Deer Hunting: Club of Virginia. Trjing 
the guns and gunntrs on a dummy deer. 
of a new member of the club, who on account of deaf- 
ness was thought to be wholly incapacitated for the 
pleasures of the hunt, and unable to detect or secure the 
stealthy and sagacious deer. In fact, it was considered 
inadvisable to take him in the mountains among the bear 
and other ferocious animals, as his deafness might pre- 
vent him from properly protecting himself, or, at least, 
from detecting and securmg game. For these reasons 
