JAN. 13, 1906.] 

_ One would suppose the fish would diminish 
in numbers owing to the immense number of 
sharks and pelicans. The latter, in flocks of 
from a dozen to a hundred, go out to sea each 
morning and return just before sundown to their 
roosts on the islands in the bay; or, when the 
fish are inside the reef, these birds can be seen 
gorging themselves for hours together. How 
they utilize the numbers eaten would puzzle a 
philosopher. I saw one bird devour twenty- 
seven mullet, by actual count, and it wasn’t a 
very good day for pelicans either. 
_ It seems like a singular statement, but the 
jumping and splashing of the fish about the 
vessel during the night quite frequently keep 
me awake, the water seeming to be fairly alive 
with them. They evidently come in on the 
flood tide, and perhaps seek the surface in such 
vast numbers owing to the absence of their 
peal enemies, the pelican and the man-of-war 
awk. 
Should you desire to take a trip into the 
swamp with me after monkeys, parrots, snipe, 
toucans, duck, tigers and deer, I may accom- 
modate you in another letter. Din eos 
Robert Walle’s Deer Shooting. 
In the year of grace 1756, and of the reign of 
King George II. the twenty-ninth, in Brumfield 
parish of the British colony of Virginia, one 
Robert Walle, a laborer, thinking to make the 
pot boil, went out into the woods to sit for 
deer. His aim was good, his flint-lock true 
The bullet sped to the mark. Robertr Walle 
brought down his game. But it was not a deer. 
The record of the shot was written out in 
the beautiful copper-plate writing of the court 
clerks of the day, and filed away among:the 
papers of the Court of Culpeper county. There 
it remained. George II. died and George III. 
succeeded to the throne. The ink had not yet 
paled before the colony of Virginia joined with 
her sister to throw off the British rule. Through 
the strife and turmoil of the seven years’ war 
the story of Robert Walle’s shot was. preserved 
intact. The paper grew yellow with a hundred 
years. Virginia was again the theatre of war. 
A Massachusetts volunteer picked up the musty 
court record and took it to his New England 
home. The years went by. The men of Massa- 
chusetts and of Virginia forgot that they had 
fought as enemies, and joined each other to 
celebrate in Virginia the victories of the 
colonies. Again the years went by. To-day, 
while the bunting on Broadway is still flying in 
commemoration of another Revolutionary event, 
we copy the old Culpeper colonial court record, 
and give to the readers of FoREST AND STREAM 
the story of Robert Walle’s deer shooting: 
At a court held for the County of Culpeper, on Friday 
the 4th Day of June 1756, on the Examination of Francis 
Walle, charged with the Felonious Slaying one George 
Roberts. 
PRESENT: 
James Pendleton, aniel Brown & 
Francis Slaughter, William Green, 
William Williams Gent. 
Francis Walle late of the Parish of Brumfield in this 
County Laborer being led to the Bar in the custody of 
the sheriff, charged with the Felonious Slaying one 
George Roberts late of the Parish & County aforesaid 
and being Demanded whether he was Guilty or not 
Guilty confessed he was Guilty, though it was an In- 
voluntary Act, for that he accidently shot the said 
George Roberts, as he was sitting for Deer believing him 
to be cne, and as no one was Privy thereto, he went 
Immediately & Informed the Father of the said Deceased 
what had happened, and helped him Home with the 
Dead body, whereupon John Roberts, Father of the said 
George Roberts, who was killed being sworn & Ex- 
amined as Witness for our Lord the King against the 
said Prisoner, declared he believed the Prisoners Con- 
fession to be true, and no other Witness appearing 
against him It is therefore the opinion of the Court that 
the said Francis Walle is Guilty of Chance Medley and 
that he ought to be tryed for the said Fact on the sixth 
Day of the next General Court and on his Prayer is 
admitted to Bail. 
How the trial ended we have no means of de- 
termining; but as Robert Walle had proved him- 
self to be such a good shot with his flint-lock 
at the ‘‘man target,” it is not at all improbable 
that his services were enlisted in the campaigns 
of the Revolution. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 43 




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