246 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
man, ere he may hope for the least success in attempting it un¬ 
aided ; and for a long time he must be content with following 
silently in the wake of his skilful guide, straining his every fa¬ 
culty to distinguish the signs which he literally reads as he runs, 
and must he satisfied at first to be told and taught, by slow de¬ 
grees, the various symptoms by which he shall one day uner¬ 
ringly pronounce on the size, the sex, the weight, the rate of 
progress of the animal; and last, not least, of the length of 
time which has elapsed since the impress of the track, which 
alone can guide him on the soft forest soil, or in the streamlet’s 
bed. 
For a long time, it shall appear marvellous to him, indeed, 
when, after winding to and fro, perhaps for an hour or two, 
among the monstrous stems of the tall timber trees, or through 
the deep alder brakes, or upland tracts of dwarf pine, he is told 
in a guarded whisper to make his rifle ready, and crawl warily 
over the brow of this hillock, or to the brink of that dell,—for, 
sure enough, the Deer are at hand ; and, still more marvellous, 
when he is set within twenty or thirty yards of the unsuspecting 
quarry, and bade to take his time and make sure; and yet most 
rapturous of all, the moment, when the quick rifle cracks, and 
the stricken hart bounds aloft, death-wounded, and falls headlong. 
Yet all this thou, too, mayest attain, mine adventurous reader 
if thou wilt take patience to be thy rule of conduct, and a wise 
woodman to be thy guide, and wilt eschew soft sleeping and 
high feeding for a time, and exchange city luxuries for forest 
fare, and model thyself after the fashion of a man,1iot of a Man 
talini ! Success and speed to thee, if thou assay it; and of this 
be sure, that thou wilt not rue the adventure, either for the 
manhood thou shalt gain, or the fun thou wilt find in gaining it. 
In order, however, to enjoy Deer-hunting in anything like 
perfection—for, after all, here, to the Northward, it is practised 
ninety-nine tidies out of a hundred, as it is in the "West—I had 
almost said altogether —as a means of obtaining venison, and not 
for sport’s sake—we must go into Virginia, into the Carolinas, 
Louisiana and Mississippi. There we find the gentlemen of the 
