The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-17
KILLED IN ODD WAYS |
FATE OF PRETTY WHITE DOE
IN A CANADIAN
COUNTY
BUCK KILLED BY CHANCE SHOT
Old Ground on Katzuba River That
Was Scene of Fierce Battles
Between Long-AntIered
Giants.

to the south of this county of Bronze. In
the province of Quebec, has been killed
says a Knowlton correspondent of the
New York Sun. Encouraged by its inn
munity from attack by man and because
perhaps of it's unusual color, seldom
molested by dogs, the pretty creature
had become almost tame and so was
easily shot by an ignorant fellow who
did not even know that there was an
thing uncommon about the deer.
A different kind of man was neighbor,
who found that a buck had pushed open
his dairy door, and then struggling in
side, had shut himself in. He called the
children to see the visitor, refused to
allow them to give him salt or bread for
fear of allaying that dread of man which
is the salvation of deer, and finally
turned him loose.
The deer were surprisingly tame last
summer in the eastern townships. From
all directions came accounts of their
visits to cattle in pastures or of their
appearance to travellers along the high
ways. A parti- colored doe with a fawn
at her heels was seen not very long ago
on the road near the outlet of Bronze
lake, and a fine young male with
snow-white flank was shot mile further
on last week. Two men fired four or five
times at three deer in am orchard during
the last week of September, but suffered
so severely from buck fever that the trio
ambled away unhurt.
Some time ago man driving with his
wife in Alleyne township saw a prettily
marked well antlered stag step into the
woods before them, and more from a desire
to make him show himself than from any
serious hope of getting him, fired with a
a revolver at his scut a few yards
distant in the covert. Astonished at not
hearing the creature break away the
man entered the bush and found the deer
stone dead in couchant position. The
ball had travelled along the backbone,
evidently causing painless and sudden
death from paralysis.
In the house to which this noble stag
was carried was preserved as a curiosity
deers forefoot with a rusty mink trap
nipping 1t securely below the fetlock. The
poor thing that had borne this hobble
certainly for months perhaps for years,
had after being shot through the Shout
der made a gallant run for three miles
before the settlers which directed the
marksman to its dead body.
On one other occasion, and in the same
district, the hunter above referred to
shot a deer dead on the spot which as
every hunter well known is a most I'M
usual experience. He was sleeping one
starlight night in a deserted shanty,
when CHANGING to turn toward the win
dow he saw what he took to be the wi7e-
spreading horns of a male of many tines.
1t was a rather unlikely place for deer,
and he lay quite still, trying to settle In
his own mind if some branching tree out
side were not deceiving him. He had a
little doze over it indeed, but not such a
deep sleep as prevented him catching the
sound of a. movement.
Noiselessly raising his Winchester he
aimed low as the sill of the window
frame would allow and fired He fancied
he heard some disturbance and the
branched horns disappeared. but glance
from the window revealed nothing 1t
was a cold night with a heavy dew. his
shoes were not conveniently placed, and
the blankets were too inviting after a
long days tramp, OF permit him to turn
out to see just where he had missed
stag.
When morning came, however he
found the finest pair of antlers he had
ever seen and their owner lying beneath
the window, his nose resting on an empty
pork barrel the splendid fellow had been
licking at, for its salt flavor. The lucky
marksman declared that he never found
a. break in the skin of the deer, that
either the sudden shock of the report
killed him, or that the bullet had pro-
penetrating the thick bone at the top OF
the skull.
AS rule, even when mortally wound.
ed, members of the deer family run some
distance, or at least bound away for
few rods. A friend of the writer stand
ing upon a runway was run into and
bowled over by a racing young deer,
which then fell on him in it's death fur
ry, seriously injuring HIM in its strug-
rr1Ae bod 49,
away. Quite lately, i'll Megantic, near the
Maine boundary line, doe pierced
through the heart, got off to a hiding
place some 400 yards away before she
fell.
There is no sympathy among deer, self
preservation being the supreme law, so
that seriously wounded deer is never
encouraged to remain with it's comrades
but is Stunned. If it is persistent it is
horned and pushed about, and is made
to learn to hide itself in the thick bush,
there to drag out a miserable existence
until in its enfeebled state it becomes
the prey of bear, wolf or wolverine, or,
dreadful alternative, pines away to it's
death in solitude.
The writer passing along ravine not
far from a little settlement saw a skee-
ton-like two-year-old which was suffer-
ing from a neglected compound fracture
of the forearm, pulled down by a mon
grel sheep dog. And the dreadful help
lessness and complete misery of the vic
tim, brought forcibly home to him the
righteousness of the position taken by
several of his hunting friends, Never
fire at deer unless you certainly have
an opportunity of a shot fatal to it,
The popular and poetical motion of the
sweet gentleness of these ANIMALS is not
borne out by experience. There is an old
stamping ground thirty miles up the
KazubaZua river where for centuries an
parently the stays have been accustomed
to go to settle their differences The
ring is two or three acres in extent,
every foot of which is of fine black soil,
ploughed up by the stamping of COM
blatant deer.
Years ago a settler living not so very
far away carried off many age-whitened
horns, and some bones. Doubtless these
were the relics of old-time tournaments
when the conflict was not merely a
harmless joust, but stern, serious war
fare to death. Exactly. why that par
ticular spot was chosen it is difficult to
say. The soil is deep, friable, and in wet
weather Doggy. The heritage around it
is not especially fine for cropping. On
three sides the bordering trees are wild
plums, acres of them, in some seasons
at least strewing the ground ankle deep
with red fruit of good eating quality.
But deer are not generally supposed to
be fond of plums, though they are often
found visiting apple trees in back settle
ments.
While crowned with horns the male is
defiant and truculent when he dares to
be. An Eastern township farmer blames
some quarrelsome stag for the death of
a fine dehorned yearling bull in a pas
ture last month. The fear of man is, as
was said before. the salvation Of deer,
and is also very good thing for tho