222 
VIRGINIAN DEER. 
It will not shrink with all the wettings to Avhich it is exposed. In the form 
ot mocasins, leggings, and hunting shirts, it is the most material part of the 
dress of many Indian tribes, and in the civilized world is used for breeches 
g^lovcs, gaiters, and. various other purposes. 
From the horns are made beautiful handles for various kinds of cutleri- 
The timidity of the Deer is such, that it hurries away, even from the' 
sight of a child, and it is but seldom that the hunter has any danger to ap- 
prehend, even from a wounded buck ; it does but little injury to”the fields 
of the planter, and is a universal favourite with old and young of both sexes 
in our Southern States. 
The Virginian, or as we wish to designate it, the Common Deer, is the 
only large animal, if we except the bear, that is not driven from the vici- 
nity of man by the report of the deer-driver’s gun, or the crack of the hun- 
ter s rifle ; the buffalo and the elk are now rarely seen ea.st of the Mis- 
sissippi. Hunted by hounds and shot at from day to day, the Deer may re- 
treat from this persecution for a little rvhile, but soon returns again to its 
original haunts. Although it scarcely ever occupies the same bed on suc- 
cessive nights, yet it is usually found in the same range, or drive as it is 
called, and often not fifty yards from the place, where it was started before 
It is fond of lingering around fences and old fields, that are partially over- 
spread with brush-wood, briar-patches and other cover, to screen it from 
observation. In the southern States the Deer, especially in summer when 
they are least disturbed, are fond of leaping the outer fences of plantations, 
lying through the day in some tangled thicket, overgrown with cane, vines 
and briars ; and in such places you may be so fortunate as to start an old 
buck m August or September, and many an overgrown denizen of the 
forest has bowed his huge antlers and fallen a sacrifice to his temerity in 
seeking a resting-place too near some pea-patch, where his hoofs left traces 
for many weeks of his nightly depredations. 
This habit of resting during the day in the near vicinity of their feed- 
mg ground, is however not universal. We during last summer were 
invited to visit a large cornfield in which a quantity of the Carolina cow- 
pea had been planted among the corn. This had been the ni-htly resort 
of the Deer during the rvhole summer-their tracks of various sizes cov- 
ered the ground, as if flocks of sheep had resorted to it, and scarcely a 
pod or even a leaf was remaining on the vines. The Deer, however, rvere 
not in the vicinity, where there were several favourable and extensive 
covers ; they were trailed to some small islands, in a marsh nearly two 
miles off. We ascertained that the Deer inhabiting the swamps on the 
east side of the Edisto river, where there are but few cultivated farms, 
were in the nightly habit of swimming the Edisto and visiting the pea. 
