THE MULE AND WHITE-TAILED DEER 
the Kippewa district of Ontario, I entered the Deux-Rivi&res county of 
Quebec north of the Ottawa to have a final try to get a good bull before the 
winter drove me out. I was accompanied by a drunken Indian who knew 
where the moose were but who was otherwise useless. On the second day 
north of the river we tramped along an old lumber road and came to a 
small lake amid dense forest. It was snowing hard and, as I was somewhat 
tired from carrying a pack, I told the Indian to light a fire whilst I went 
to the lake edge to fill the kettle with water. In my right hand I carried 
the kettle and in my left my rifle and as I stooped to fill the former I looked 
across the lake and saw a spelndid white -tail buck standing on the farther 
shore intently watching me. I lay down at once, but as the snow was falling 
so thickly I found it very difficult to estimate the distance, which may have 
been anything between 200 and 350 yards. However, as I looked down the 
sights of the rifle the buck seemed to have vanished. I could hardly have 
failed to see it leap into the cover and so, for a moment, was at a loss to 
account for its sudden disappearance. In a moment, however, the mystery 
was explained. The buck was in the middle of the lake, and, more curious 
still, swimming directly towards me. In the black water I could only dis- 
tinguish the nose and horns, which stood up like some floating tree. On 
and on it came and I lay perfectly still until I could see the black eye and 
moving nostrils. Even at a distance of 20 yards the buck only diverged 
slightly from its line and was in the act of landing, not 10 yards from me, 
when I put a bullet through its ribs. It gave a convulsive plunge or two 
and fell dead. 
I can only explain the curious behaviour of this buck by supposing that, 
owing to the falling snow, it was unable to identify my form and so took 
me for a rival or a doe, and, in spite of its fine eyesight, it must still have 
been labouring under that delusion up to the moment when I shot it. 
The surprise of the Indian was complete when he found me standing over 
the deer, as there was no cover near the spot and he could not understand 
how the incident had happened. The buck carried very good horns, 27 inches 
in length, with fifteen points. 
The first buck I shot in the Rockies was scared out of a willow brake and 
ran almost on the top of me before it discovered its mistake, whilst a second 
gave me an excellent stalk in the early morning. The buck during the rut 
usually has one doe, sometimes two, and rarely more than three. Like 
other deer he seeks fresh charmers as soon as the first doe becomes 
unresponsive, and the mating season is thus sometimes prolonged for two 
321 
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