Nov. 19, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
809 
one. And there is no need to have it too long, 
as the more compact the load, the better it car¬ 
ries. The following method of hanging the deer 
brings it close up to the pole and so lessens the 
side swing, a very important feature. Make a 
slit through one of the hind legs just above the 
hock joint between tendon and bone. Thrust 
the opposite foreleg through this until the knee 
joint is well through. Cut a smaller slit back of 
the tendon of the foreleg above the knee joint 
and thrust a wooden peg through the latter to 
keep the foreleg from pulling out. Do the same 
with the other two legs. This brings all the 
legs so close together that it is often rather a 
tight fit for a good sized pole. Push the pole 
through between the legs and tie the head up 
as close as possible both to the crossed legs and 
to the pole. Shoulder and move on, the man be¬ 
hind holding on to the tail of the deer to lessen 
the slight swaying motion, which can be further 
eliminated if the two bearers keep step, but with 
the open at the lower end of the pocosin and 
standing there for some minutes listening to the 
dogs. Then he came on slowly until within range 
with the result shown, which was directly trace¬ 
able to the condition of the sights on the gun. 
I apologized most abjectly for not having been 
more bossy in the morning, but the damage was 
done and K. had missed his first deer. 
In the afternoon I finished skinning my ’gator 
and packed the skin in to camp. There it was 
salted and hung up to partially dry, before roll¬ 
ing up for shipment. We also caught a good 
mess of fish for supper, as we were expecting 
some of the party back that afternoon. I had 
forgotten to say that on the afternoon of the 
first day two of the boys had gone out and col¬ 
lected a mess of nice fat squirrels. Ever eat a 
real, well-made squirrel stew in camp? If not, 
you have missed it. We had five squirrels to 
start with. They had been dressed and cut up 
and put on to stew during ( supper. They stewed 
salt, pepper and Worcester sauce. Good is not 
the word to express the quality of that stew. 
There is no word that does express it. You 
will have to make one of these stews and attack 
it when coming in to camp hungry and cold from 
a long stay in the woods or in a duck blind. 
And there was that big bass, too. He also was 
stewed; not so long, but about in the same way 
and with the same ingredients. Words will not 
describe that, either, so imagination will have to 
do the best it can with both. That night we had 
broiled yellowlegs, fried deer liver, broiled veni¬ 
son steak and fried warmouth perch—a pretty 
good bill of fare even for the most fastidious. 
We retained one hindquarter of the day’s deer 
and sent the rest of the carcass to town to be 
placed in cold storage until needed. 
Mr. D. and N., with a couple of young friends, 
G. and M., turned up in the auto rather late, 
having had to repair a broken chain on the road. 
We had a good old camp-fire talk that night and 
A Poor Place to Land. In the Low Pocosin. 
CHARACTERISTIC PICTURES MADE BY MR. BRIMLEY ON THE CAMP COMFORT HUNTING GROUNDS. 
opposite feet. That is, the one behind puts down 
his left foot to the front man’s right. For a 
two-man carry this is the best and easiest way 4 
know. It is a help to remove your hat, which 
you will not need for warmth when carrying, 
and make a shoulder pad of it. I have taken 
off a shirt and used it for this purpose. 
We got this deer out with but little trouble 
or undue fatigue, and the wagon brought him 
in. He had a nice head, but one of the prongs— 
locally called snags—had been broken and bent 
back when in the velvet and was deformed to 
that extent. 
For K.’s missing his deer I was really respon¬ 
sible. He had a new rifle, direct from the fac¬ 
tory, and went out with it without testing and 
adjusting the sights, not realizing the import¬ 
ance of doing this. The necessity for this was 
known to me, and I should have insisted on its 
being done before leaving camp that morning. 
After returning to camp we set up a target at 
fifty yards and put the gun to the test. K. shot 
well, but the gun averaged four inches to the 
right at the distance, and he found that it shot 
a foot or more high with the foresight showing 
as he had used it on the deer. These deviations 
might well account for any amount of missing, 
so we adjusted the sights until the bullets 
grouped as they should. 
The buck at which K. had shot had been with¬ 
in sight for ten or fifteen minutes, coming into 
for a couple of hours that evening and were left 
in the pot until next day. Before dinner that 
day they were put on again, with some potatoes 
cut in small pieces, and chopped onions, with 
pieces of salt pork added and seasoned with 
I T was about a year after the close of the 
Civil War that I entered into an agreement 
with Bill Bayley, a well-to-do California cattle 
man, to help him drive some Texas cattle to the 
Pacific coast. The monetary inducement offered 
was not to be despised, but I confess that the 
novelty and excitement which I knew would at¬ 
tend the enterprise appealed to me with a force 
that overshadowed all other considerations. 
I was young in those days, and the illusions 
0 
of youth had not lost their fascinating influence. 
Texas had always been to me a land of romance, 
of great achievements and valiant men. The cow¬ 
boy had not then attained the elevated pedestal 
upon which he was subsequently placed by elo¬ 
quent and imaginative writers, but Texas w'as' 
laid out plans for the morrow. It was decided 
to take the north drive over again, as both D. 
and Mr. B. reported an abundance of deer sign 
in the woods in that direction. 
the land of Crockett, Travis and Bowie, and the 
island upon which Galveston stands I knew had 
been the last stronghold of the pirate, La Fitte, 
whose deeds I had in early youth decided to 
emulate the moment I could cut loose from the 
irksome espionage of parental authority. Indeed, 
I remembered that I had taken some important 
steps in the matter, by making with the aid of 
an older sister an appalling black flag emblaz¬ 
oned with a skull and cross bones, and had 
raised it upon a staff in the back yard, where it 
excited the envy and admiration of all the boys 
in the neighborhood. 
Our stay in Galveston after the long tedious 
ride across the continent was short. We bought 
most of our supplies there including a dozen old 
On the Old Cattle Trail 
By FORKED DEER 
