The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-09-11

THE month of September see
the beginning of the hunting
l. for the deer, Americas mos
plentiful, if not its typical
big game, in twenty-five out of fifty
nine States, Territories and Canadian
Provinces of North America. Of tn,
rest, five permit hunting . begir
earlier. The others do not permit i
at all, or limit the season to October
and November.
With the exception of the jumping
black-tail deer of the Rocky Mountain
region, the deer that is hunted
throughout the United States and
Canada is the red deer, most com
monty known as the Virginia deer.
They called it Virginia deer long ago
because naturalists first studied it
there, and for along time it was sup
posed that the deer of the Northern
States was another variety.A
Red deer is almost as poor 9nasne
for it as Virginia deer.i itSis intended
to be descriptive, for the aeriicanr, +,
deer is blush gray when IT asst its
best, which is in the hunting season.
The best name for it is white-tailed
deer. Whoever has fred at the glori-
Gus animal after long stalk and has,
seen its big white flag Haunting bolt
upright after the shot, as the-dser
disappeared, thus showing thatfiiS
ishot had failed, will acknowledge that
the white tail was by far the most
prominent object in an autumn lands
scape.
What the White Signal Says.
When thatiWhite-fag th6S shows as
the deer leaps away dunter knows
that there is ass ihA following.
1t is only when the big tail Is seen to
drop suddenly that the Sportsman
knows his shot has stefd.
Septembef is really too early to per-
init hunting for deef,yandl it would be
we'll if the States cou1d all agree on
a close season till October. But the
mischief is not as great asSit might
be, because the use of houndSte RIM
the animals is prohibited very gener-,
ally now, aud the prohibit5onsSe of the
use of jacklights and other exp edient S
for night hunting, as we'll as the use,
of artificial salt licks, are almost as
universal.
This makes large part of North
America land where only the still
hunter may take the deer; and the
woods are far too noisy in September
to offer success in this, the most diff
cult form of hunting known to man.
The ground is carpeted with twigs
and leaves, and each one is waiting to
give forth its own sharp sound when
the foot treads on it. The foliage
still hangs thickly on bushes and
frees, obscuring the view Nature is
Just beginning to color the leaves, and
with her usual art the colors make a
1deer's coat at fifty yards look so abso-
lutely like mass of foliage that any
except the keenest and most expert
Ienced still-hunter will walk almost
on the animal, only to see it vanish
behind kind curtain of shrubbery
before he can throw his rifle to his
shoulder.
When Most States Permitted Hound
ing.
1t was different when the majority
of States permitted bounding. Then it
made no difference to the hunter if
he were as heavy-footed as steer, or
if the woods were as noisy under foot
as a city street on the Fourth of July.
IAll that he needed was to be quick
with his gun at the proper moment.
and often he didn't need even that,
flor his guide could post him at run-
hway where the deer would have to
tpass him at so short a range that he
I,ould blow a hole into its side with a
fshot gun at fifty PAGES.
T Many a man has fine head or a
whole lot of fine heads hanging on his
wall to which he points with the pride
of the hunter of big game. Yet, if the
truth were told, he would have to
confess that he didn't do any real
hunting in all his life The guides
and the hounds did the hunting and he
lid the butchering.
With the true hunter, the shot is
only the final closing act of the hunt
Seeking game, tracking it, circumvent-
ing it, pitting the. skill OF the n, man !!
hunting. The killing is-only killing
Readers of hunting literature of the
bounding days will recall the poetic
butbursts of the man who told how
ne stood on the runway with every
herve keen and quivering, while the
music of the baying hounds rang from
lill to valley, until suddenly the ant
erred creature crashed by him, and in
hat brief moment of its dart across
he forest vista he fired and dropped
it in its lordly tracks.
Well, that was all very pretty in the
older days when men did their own
hunting. But a typical modern deer
bounding, arranged by clever modern
guides for a party of amateurs, is
I;ferent thing by far. These men pay
he guides for deer and they wan
Heer. They will take no chances