Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1878-01-02
Hunting the Red Deer-An Experience i'm
Michigan.

far into the night, was taken up in
| clearing away the underbrush, pitching
our tents, hauling firewood and arrang-
ing the camp. The next morning,
however, we were all up and off into
the forest before it was fairly light. l
started out alone, and after following
the sold tole road a half mile or so
west of the camp, | plunged into the
dense woods to the south. Deer sign
wherever the soil could be seen was
abundant, and l flOundered on a.
quietly as possible, hoping soon to
strike one of the maple ridges that in
tersected the country. About nine
O'Clock the clouds began to break, and
the sun peeped into the bushes and
struggled to force its way into the for
est. Although it made tall stand
ing birch glow in its mellow warmth,
it but edged the encompassing ever
greens, and soon the clouds obscured all
again. | was growing desperately i'm
patient, when suddenly Iemerged from
the mOss-hung and dripping lagoon on
to an open ridge, where the yellow and
scarlet maple leaves Strew the ground
like velvet carpet. Deer "runways'
opened into the underground in every
direction, and going down upon my
knees in one of these | scraped away
the autumnal baldrich and was over
jOyed in finding, not a single fresh
rracl- hur 1Ozans of than -nDna noinor
this way, some that, and with faster
beating heart L arose, wondering
whether any of the boys had struck
such lead, and certain of killing a deer
within an hour. Speedily selecting an
old log, that in falling had lodged in
the bushy tops of the dwarf cedars, |
climbed upon it some ten feet high and
cooking my rifle, waited. Hardly fif-
teen minutes had elapsed, when sharp
plunge in the hopple bushes, a swapping
of the dead branches in front of me,
sent thrill like electricity through and
through my frame, and the next instant
beheld two deer, a sturdy young buck
and a beautiful doe, some larger,
emerged into the open woods on the
ridge.
They had not been frightened, for
tapping his ears once or twice, and
casting a single short glance back into
the bushes whence they came, the buck
lowered his pronged head, and began
to Craze very complacently upon the
tender shoots and grasses at his feet,
while the doe, close astern, her sleek,
beautiful head well up, followed leis-
urely. Over-eagerness and a mild
touch of the ''fever" made me act with
less judgement than one of my eXper-
fence should have acted, and although
the deer was coming straight TO me,
took up my rifle and taking deliberate
aim at the buck, between the shoulder
blade and the thick of the neck, | fired,
at a good seventy PAGES With
''swish" and a snort the doe wheeled
in her tracks, and made a gray streak
athwart the brown background wood.
But the buck, to my wild delight, bra
ced himself madly a moment in the soft
soil, then went over backward, with a
piteous bleat, apparently in the throes
of death. Very cOOlly | retained my
position. and reloaded my rifle, then
| waiting a few seconds, that seemed
ages, leaped down and ran toward my
meat IN a terrible excitement. Preached
back for my knife as | ran, but instead
drew forth my hatchet, and was almost
upon the fallen animal. when he leaped
| to his feet with defiant snort and faced
me. | saw his distended eyes flashing
fire, and the blood and froth dripping
from his nostrils before | whisked be-
hind a convenient oak.
"When / looked forth, to my alarm,
the buck had turned tail and was max
| ing off into the wood at a staggering
lope, but soon getting under full head
way he disappeared in the hopple
| bushes. Away | dashed, fOOlishly
enough, after him; had / allowed him
half an hour to himself he would have
lain down and bled to death. But this
| fact never occurred to me, and /
threshed away upon his bloody trail at
the top of my speed. The leaves and
| bushes and even the trunks of the trees
where the deer had passed were ensan-
guined with the crimson liquid that was
letting his life out. Away j flew over
logs and mossy hollOws, when with
startling abruptneSs. | was upon him,
almost over him, as he lay bleeding TO
death in the low whOrtleberry bushes.
| Up again he staggered, and with an
| angry "swish" was gone before even
thought of my rifle. By this time | be-
gan TO realize the consummate fool / was
playing, and with an inward reprimand
| [ moved on again upon the bloody trail
1t cautious pace, and had traversed
| but a few hundred yards when l
| Jumped him again, and this time As
he lumberingly vaulted an old, pros
trate hemiock gave it to him. breaking
his hind leg just below the knee joint.
But ne was still in a navigable cOndi-
tion, and third time he left me. With
| feverish determination | held his trail.
and after travelling perchance half
mile espied him lying half concealed
under clump of yellOw-leafed shrub
berry. A halt, a deliberate aim, and a
half-ounce of lead went crushing
through his head at the butt of the ear,
and at last he was mine. felt like
giving a regular war-whOop as | ran
up to him, but the darkness and unfa-
miliarty of the woods repressed all
boisterousness, and, lost as | was, 1
set to work disembowelling him. 1t
took me good hour to accomplish this
and hang him up out of the reach of
wolves; but this once effected | took
out my compass, shaped my course as
well as possible, and then began blaz-
ing my way back to camp As luck
would have it, had gone but mile or
80 when ran across ''HOff," one of our
guides, and he and returning, toted in