The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-01-29
Deer and Decr.shooting in Texas

In late number of the American Natural
ISL published by the Peabody Academy Of
Science in Salem, Mass, Mr.. Charles Wright
gives pleasant account of his experience as
a deer hunter in Texas. He says
"What becomes of deer's horns A few
years ago | saw an attempt TO answer the
question by some person in one of the South
ern Atlantic States and he arrived at the con-
clusion that the animal covers them, or they
would be oftener found. But, in the first
place, deer are not so plentiful there that they
must be expected to scatter their horns very
thickly over the open parts Of the forest where
they would be readily seen. Aud, again,
each large buck has but two horns thus to
dispose of each year; and the large bucks are
not very numerous while the antlers of the
small ones are inconspicuous. But the writer
had, or thought he had, evidence that the
buck covers his antlers with leaves. Doubt
less they are so covered by leaves which fall
upon them, according to natural laws; but in
the forests, and particularly in the praires of
the West, | have seen hundreds which GER
tainly had never been covered by the animals
that dropped them. They decay iu the ordi-
nary course of nature, aud are also eaten by
some small rodent, whose tooth-marks have
often seen upon than.
"It may not be known to many that bucks
often lock horns, and it sometimes becomes
a dead lock- literally. | have met, during
my hunts, more Jnan Ou9 pair OF ueaQS Llu5
coupled together, and | killed one pair Of
bucks so firmly united that they would have
died of hunger if had not put them to death
in q manner less lingering and painful. These
animals had evidently come together with
great violence; the antlers had yielded to the
| shock, aud had closed again in such a manner
that no ordinary exertion of strength was suf-
| fcient to separate them. II is not very easy
| to xplain their position; but the beam of the
left antler of one was behind, and in close con-
| tact with the bases of the two antlers of the
| other while the tips of the right antler of the
| former were locked in the tips of those of the
| latter. Wher, later, the skin on the back of
| the head at the base of the antlers dried and
| shrunk, room was made for little movement,
and they could then be unlocked.
"Twill only touch upon one pecu-
| lierity of the chase in Texas as l heard it from
| those who had followed it III the States from
which they came. 1t was said that in the
Atlantic and Calf States, where the chase is
or was q favorite pastime, the hunter can
Judge, with considerable probability, where
| the deer will pass when running before the
hounds. Thus in given area-a township,
we will suppose-the deer will cross creek
in one o. two of half dozen regular cross
| ings; or he will pass one of limited number
of known glades or openings in the general
forest. But in Texas this did not hold good
Either the deer had no regular passing places,
| or they had so indefinite number that the
hunters were not able 10 discover them. Per
| haps this difference comes from the fact that
running deer with hounds had never been
practised there, and they had not become
used 10 it. The hunters were quite at a loss
where to station themselves in order to get q
shot at the chase"