River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1880-12-09
A TOUGH DEER.
4 Hunters Exciting Struggle with a
Wounded Buck

\ Sroudsburg, Pa, dispatch to the
New York Times tells the following:
An Irishman named Mike Callighan
owns small and almost valueless
farm IN the mountains, few miles
north OF Porters' lake, in Pike county,
Pennsylvania. The land being toe
stony to produce paying crops, Callig-
han is obliged to turn his hand to any
thing at which he can make a little
money. He is quite expert with the
rifle and during the few years that he
has lived in the Milds of Pike county
he has shot a large number of deer,
several bears, and few wildcats. He
has become so accustomed to seeing
beasts in the woods that he says he
has no more fear of meeting them
than he has of COW He has had
many hairbreadth escapes with bears
and catamounts within the past five
years, but always came out victorious.
He had an encounter-which, had it
not been for the timely arrival of his
daughter, might have been his last-a
few mornings ago.
Callighan arose earlier than usual, as
he desired to start early for Bushkill,
about thirteen miles distant. While
hitching his horse to the wagon he dis
covered a large four-pronged buck
deer grazing on a small clearing few
rods from the house. He ran to the
house seized his rifle, and crawled on
his hands and knees through the woods
behind a stone fence. until he got with
III shooting distance. Then to make
sure of hitting the deer, he placed the
barrel of his rifle in the crotch of a
small chestnut, and taking deliberate
aim, fired. The deer gave an upward
plunge and fell to the ground appar-
emily lifeless The ball had penetrated
the animals breast from which the
blood flowed freely. Calighan laid
down his gun, and climbing the fence,
walked up to the wounded deer with
the intention of cutting its throat. As
he was about to draw his hunting-knife
from his belt, the deer gave a sudden
and desperate lunge, catching the
hunter with his antlers and throwing
him several feet III the air. When he
landed he struck upon his head and
shoulders, stunning him so that he lay
several seconds partially insensible.
When he fully recovered the deer was
still lying on the ground, a few feet dis
tant Callighan thought the animal
had lost enough blood to warrant him
in making a second attack without
danger of being further injured He
seized the dying buck by the antlers
with his left hand, and with his right
drew the blade of the knife across the
animals throat with the intention of
severing the windpipe but in this he
only partially succeeded.
This seemed to add to the fury of the
wounded animal, for it gave another
powerful lunge, throwing the hunter
with great violence to the ground. The
deer then began paving him with his
front feet and goring him with its
horns In the struggle the hunter lost
his knife, and fearing that the deer
would kill him, he shonted to his
daughter, who FASTENED to her fathers
rescue. She picked up the knife, and
seized the deer by the antlers, and with
one thrust of the knife nearly severed
the head from the body 1t gave one
or two kicks and died. Although
Callighan's injuries are not dangerous,
lie Will be laid up for some time. His
body was literally covered with
scratches, and his clothes were torn in
to shreds. The deer was a very large
one, weighing nearly two hundred
pounds, and was the third one the
brave young woman has helped kill
during the past few years.