The Northern Pacific farmer., 1885-04-02
IARVELOUS sH0TH

T. IARVELoUs sHoTA
Stories Which Mako tho Trigger TInge
Twitch.
One day followed d does track,
from II q. M. till sunset without ha1
ing obtained anything like the meres
glimpse OF my game. I was fast losing
hope, as but q few moments of day
light were left me, when; on coming tc
the edge Of a fat; covered by heavy
yellow birch timber; and terminated
on the further side by an abrupt bank,
like that of river, saw the old doe
standing half way up the bank, broad.
side to; the fawn below her, it's slender
neck upstretched exactly in line with
It's mothers shoulder. At that dis
tance (ninety very long paces) the
neck looked about the size of hoe
handle. but l took a quick look
through the double sights and fred.
The fawn went down like stone; the
doe gave one convulsive bound, nearly
twenty feet, to the top of the bank,
dropped dead in hor tracks and rolled
back across her fawn.
Ny next shot, purely one of chance,
I think can be olassed as wonderful. !
was following the tracks of doe and
fawn. Within twenty rods of where !
struck the tracks suddenly saw halt
of the neck and head of the fawn,
which was lying down, partly turned
from me, placidly chewing it's cud. A
shot through its neck stretched it life
less, and, with my rifle held ready for
second shot, I advanced cautiously,
expecting to see the doe; but, nothing
stirring, concluded that she had got
away unobserved in the thick spruce
growth. So setting away my rifle, !
began to dress the fawn, which proved
to be a very large one. In doing this
/ had changed my position, so that on
rising ( caught full sight of the doe ly-
ing dead, twenty feet away to the left,
and at right angles with the line OF
fire: Half stupeiied with amazement
1 walked up to her, and found the
warm blood still trickling from a bull
1et-hole in the center of her belly, and
saw that she had died in her bed with
out a kick. On going back to the
fawn to investi gate, 1 found that the
bullet "a pointed one), about four feet
beyond the neck of the fawn, had
passed through hackmatack sapling
two inches through, little to the left
of the center, tearing the left side out
and cutting the tree nearly half down;
then turning at right angle, it had
struck the doe as mentioned, passed
directl ly upward between the kidneys,
cutting off the big artery, and burying
itself in the spine. The deer was as
safe from direct shot as though the
Rocky mountains had interposed be.
tween US.
At another time, when following a
big, fat doe in feathery snow, which
adhered to everything, on coming to
! an alder run, about eighty yards
across, filled with these bushes from
the size of knitting needle to over an
inch through, I caught sight of he1
black tail hanging down mot;onless.
There was about one chance in thou.
sand of getting bullet through, but ]
always took all such chances, and fired
without moments hesitation. The
tail disappeared instantaneously and,
fixing my eyes on an object in range,
so as to advance in direct line, ]
followed the path of the bullet. Hall
way across found an alder about as
big as pipe-stem cut off clean; but
half way from there, to where the
deer stood, and fully ten feet to the
right of the line, I saw another aldel
fully an inch in diameter cut off not
more than foot above the ground anG
thrown three feet from its stump
'That settles it, I said to myself, and
started rapidly forward to take up the
track again. On reaching the spot
found some black hairs lying on the
snow exactly as if cut out by bullet
and the first bound of the deer was
nearly twenty feet. This looked like
a wounded deer, but, smiling at the
absurdity of the idea, I pressed for
ward and within ten rods came upor
my game stone dead, with bullet ex
actly through the center of it's tail. tt
have struck the deer at all after being
detected ten feet out of it's course
would have been sufficiently remark
able, but to 60 exactly to the spo
aimed at was a singular chance
Forest and Stream.