VIRGINIAN DEER. 223 
From September till March, the bucks and does 
herd together. The does then retire to bring 
forth, and live apart till, with the return of autumn, 
both they and the bucks again feel the influence of 
passion. They are wandering restless animals. Near 
the shores* they are infested by insects, which de- 
posit their eggs on the head and throat of the deer ; 
and worms are of consequence generated in these 
parts. From this and other causes, they are, in 
such pastures, always lean, and in a bad condition. 
On the hills and inland plains, they are not exposed 
to the same annoyances, and accordingly thrive 
better. They are fond of salt, and resort eagerly 
.to places impregnated with it. Their skins have 
been an important article of commerce to the states, 
particularly of New York and Pennsylvania, from 
which places more than twenty-five thousand skins 
were imported in 1764. 
They are objects of great consequence to the 
savages. War and the chase are the two great 
employments which occupy those simple people. 
The cliace not only affords the means of subsist- 
ence, but prepares the hunter for enduring the 
fatigues, and practising the arts and stratagems of 
war. Vast numbers of those deer are annually 
destroyed by the Indian hunters ; who either sur- 
round them, fire the woods in which they are shel- 
tered, and, driving them into some peninsula or 
narrow defile, slaughter crowds at once, without 
difficulty ; or, with greater artifice, disguise them- 
selves in the skins of deer formerly killed, having 
the heads and horns still appended to them, and 
thus deceiving the unwary animals to approach 
familiarly, slay them before they suspect their 
danger. 
