LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
267 
nolia, threaded by a good nnmber of roads and 
cattle-paths. Of such land there is a good deal in 
this neighbourhood. 
Though there are .some gentlemen who keep 
packs of thorough-bred hounds in this country, 
and follow their hunting secundum artem^ after the 
fashion of the old country, it is more usual to kill 
the deer by wholesale, in a sort of battue. This 
kind of hunting is called driving the deer,” and 
is founded on the habit which the animal has of 
taking the same paths through the woods day after 
day. The hunters choose their stations at different 
points in the course of these tracts, while the dogs 
are sent through the forest to rouse the game. On 
the alarmed animals come, trooping along their 
familiar paths, and are shot down by the fatal rifle, 
as they pass the respective stations of the hunters. 
A few days ago, at a single hunt of this kind, as 
many as seventy deer were killed. It occasionally 
happens that the acute smell of the deer becomes 
cognisant of the hunter’s proximity, when they 
swerve from the path, and dash into some neigh- 
bouring swamp, safe from pursuit. 
In open ground, and even through the forest, 
the deer is often pursued in a more legitimate man- 
ner, on horseback. The excited planters at such 
times dash boldly between the myriad trunks at 
full speed, and even plunge through the closer and 
more dangerous second growth, at the risk of limb 
and life ; for the horizontal branches of the young 
trees often strike them severely, and sometimes 
tear the rider with violence from his horse. But 
this style of procedure suits the southern genius. 
The rifle is the only weapon employed ; the deer 
is sometimes killed by a ball discharged from on 
