CARIACUS VIRGIN I AN US. 
I I 
or for the refreshing effects of the bath, is an open question, and for 
my part I incline to the latter view. Mr. E. L. Sheppard tells me 
that he has on two occasions seen Deer enter the water and immerse 
themselves until almost the entire body disappeared from view, 
and this when not “ skulking,” or endeavoring to elude an 
enemy. The Rev. John Bachman once witnessed this diversion and 
described it in these words : “We recollect an occasion, when on sit- 
ting down to rest on the margin of the Santee river, we observed a 
pair of antlers on the surface of the water near an old tree, not ten 
steps from us. The halt-closed eye of the buck was upon us; we 
were without a gun, and he was, therefore, safe from any injury we 
could inflict upon him. Anxious to observe the cunning he would 
display, we turned our eyes another way, and commenced a careless 
whistle, as if for our own amusement, walking gradually towards him 
in a circuitous route, until we arrived within a few feet of him. He 
had now sunk so deep in the water that an inch only of his nose, and 
slight portions of his prongs were seen above the surface. We again 
sat down on the bank for some minutes, pretending to read a book. 
At length we suddenly directed our eyes towards him, and raised our 
hand, when he rushed to the shore, and dashed through the rattling 
canebrake in rapid style. ”* 
Early in September our Deer begin to desert the water courses, 
and before cold weather sets in there is a marked decrease in their 
numbers in the localities which a short time previously were their 
favorite feeding grounds. The reason is apparent : the marsh 
grasses have matured and are now dry; the tender aquatic plants 
near shore have mostly withered and decayed; and the lily-pads and 
pickerel weed, cut down by September frosts, no longer remain to 
tempt their appetites. They retire, therefore, to the higher ground 
in the forest, which still affords them abundant subsistence. f 
* Quadrupeds of North America, vol. II, 1851, p. .223. 
t The largest and best conditioned Deer I ever saw was a magnificent buck that Dr. F. H. 
Hoadley shot at Big Moose Lake, October 31, rS8r. Its stomach was full, containing a quantity of 
