Sentinel of the valley. [volume] (Woodstock, Va) 1841-1848, 1845-12-25
Account OF a Mesnt.
FOR THE SENTINEL.


particulars-the little modernism short, eve
srything about it. Such have been the observa-
tons OF many of our citizens respecting late
excursion by party Of hunters. We do not
expect, indeed we could not give one half that
did occur, much less relate the many amusing
incidents and anecdotes connected with that
hunt No one, who has not been in hunting
camp, can form any idea Of the mode Of living,
the humor, the pasttiInes, and the relation Of
the scenes of the day, after all the parties have
although it may happen that portion of such
A hunt had been spoken of for several weeks
by several of our townsmen ,and arrangements
had been made with others in different parts of
The county. to take jaunt to the mountains
At length the period fixed upon arrived, and
portion Of The party, whom shall designate as
LEFTsIGHTs, DoUBLEsHoTs, s SlLvERsIGHTs,
long before bread daylight, swallowed their
breakfast, Ct won't say to the perplexity of
their good house wives and, accompanied by
lad, wend their way towards Shaver's Gap.
anticipating to be overtaken by SuREsHor,
who had promised to join them in Woodstock
precisely at o'clock on the aforesaid morning,
but who did not arrive in camp on that day.
We travelled along, without any incident wor
thy of relation, but all the while boasting to
each other, If only get shoot, I'll show you
how to knock them. We reached G's before
sunrise, and some addition being necessary to
our supplies, we procured the article, and pro-
ceeded to load our guns with all the care and
art Of practical hunlsmen for you must know,
that five were not such, we had heaan tell of
the necessary precautions to be taken in such
cases;-ana you must further know, that we
had listened many an hour Of long winter
night to the exploits and nlaneuvres Of the
hunters, as related in their own peculiar STYLE
We had heard of the define, Grindstone Quar-
ry, Hoaickrr, Bear Spur, Sugar Knob, Half
Moon, Sprucepate Gap, and many other places
in the vicinity Of the place whittier we were
vending our way, and connected with each
there was some fact, or in other words, thereby
hangs story, might be applied to each. Our
anticipations were at the highest poin1-our ex-
pectations as to what>the result might be, ia
vorable, of course,) were sanguine. These ex-
peciations were, if possible, raised still higher
by the intelligence that, but few days before,
person, whom shall designate J. O., had
seen twelve deer walking deliberately through
crossing, and he SO unfortunate as to lose the
chance, by the swapping of his gun. Indeed
one of the party cracked his heels together, l
won't say how often before he touched the
ground. However, after due inquiries about
signs, we set off towards the mountain, Left
sights and Doubleshots taking to the woods,
and Silversights, with his young companion,
keeping the road in charge of the luggage
Doubleshots, not long after leaving the planta-
TONS fires, for the purpose, as he says, of try
ing the power of his gun, kills a squirrel, al
though it was coming down little, but vet it
makes nice addition in camp. Nothing is
heard from them until their arrival at camp a.
bout the middle of the day-when they repor-
ted rather unfavorably of the signs-but Dou-
bleshots had seen deer, but hadn't got shoot
Leflsights saw nothing but pheasants, which
were quite numerous. Silyersights proceeded
to the crossings, saw great many signs, wat
ched for some time, and hearing nothing from
the others, proceeded on to camp, for fear that
the provisions might get wet by rain which
commenced falling. He waited at camp some
time before the arrival of the others, and after
sending back the horses, and taking hearty
smack, our appetites having been already CON
siderably whetted, we started for a short brush
or evening hunt. We fianked out LeghtsIghts
on the left, Doubleshots in the middle, and
Silversights on the right, and proceeded down
towards the fat OF course we hunted eau
tiously, every now and then viewing closely
some object, thinking, that's deer-but as it
turned out, it was no 60 AS an evidence of
the number Of pheasants, the following fact is
given:- Silversights stepped upon rock SO as
to command the view of a small hollow and ad
jacent fiat, and perhaps in two or three min
utes counted thirteen which flew up in sight,
We hunted to the place appointed for meeting,
and each gave in the particulars Of the brush,
of which nothing of which would be interest
ing, save that Leftsight jumped up five deer,
two scrongging bucks among the number. and
why and the wherefore is, he saw their tails
FIRST, and they disappeared behind the ridge.
and away they went, showing him goodly
quantity of their white cmarass. We secured
the brush back ,ocamp, then and nosc jumping
M ansold hare: bnt we returned without sue
cess, butnot ii all discouraged. After supper
Douhleshots and Silversights started 70 watch
: wheatf 61yaad hare crossed Silvenights'
pnth, and the way he tore it was sin to Croc-
80 novsnr all that il of any yalue