The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-06-03

the saw palmettos. Charlie brought
him down with a bullet the second
jump he made, but he struggled on
some distance further before giving
up. That evening the cook added ven
iSon to our menu.
Around the campfire that night
some lively stories were told, for
George and Frank are old deer hunt
ers and their experiences have been
many and various. One by one, how
ever, We dropped to sleep, when all
of a sudden Frank sprang up from
his blanket, grabbed his gun and
rushed out of the tent, creating quite
an uproar as he did SO. He had heard
a deer whistle right outside the
camp. and ever yet we could hear the
water splash as he ran away, but al
though the moon was shining very
bright, we could see nothing Of him.
Investigation showed that he had
walked right into camp. Next morn
ing I remained in camp while the
others repeated the tactics of the day
before, but without success. The deer
appeared to be moving to the higher
land, so we decided to move camp
again.
We packed the wagon and moved
toward a large body of timber land
known as the Horseshoe Cypress. ALI
and Frank took all the dogs save one
pup and hunted the ridges, Charlie
1rcve the team, while George and
myself hunted on some distance
ahead of him. The pup finally struck
a trail and followed it beautifully, fin
ally jumping the deer in a clump Of
saw palmettos. George shot twice at
it and I hit it hard as it passed quar-
tering by me. I gave it another shot
as it plunged into another palmetto
clump and it fell after a few more
jumps.
) After dressing the deer we push
ed on. to the Horseshoe Cypress,
where We went into camp. That even
ing several of US took stands at likely
places around the northern part Of
the cypress while ALT proceeded to
drive it out with his dogs. My stand
was on a small dry mound, studded
with cabbage trees and surrounded
on all sides with a foot or more Of
water. The edge of the cypress
swamp was no more than Is feet
away and q small path led back into
it, About a year before on a similar
hunt the occupant of my stand had
three deer attempt to u by him, but
being a good rife shot he succeeded
in killing them all. This time, how
ever, we failed to start a single deer
and were obliged to wade back to
camp empty handed.
Daylight next morning found us
again on the stands, each man TAX
ing the one he had occupied the day
before. George started two deer In
the thick cypress On the way to his
stand-one of which he declared was
the biggest buck in all Florida
but failed to score. I remained on
my stand a long time without ever
seeing a deer. I was not alone, how
ever, for hundreds of beautiful song
birds fitted about among the trees,
while big blue cranes and other &C
quatic birds splashed about in the
water all around me. All of a sud-
den I heard a deer running toward
me in the cypress. I was alert at
once with gun ready, but the deer
suddenly turned aside and dashed
over the prairie full speed, almost
trimming into the horses at camp a
quarter mile from my stand. He
paused just long enough to take a
good look at the tent, and then tore
away at his best pace, the dogs strung
out behind him in a long line. He
soon outran them and disappeared
in the distance. The boys now came
in and we prepared dinner. The dogs
appeared upon the scene several
hours later, one of them so sick that
we despaired of his recovery, but aft
er some careful nursing and dosing
with medicine which his master hap
pened to have along in his camp kit.
he rapidly grew better and was ap-
parentfy as we'll as ever by nightfall
We now broke camp and started
for home passing through a dense
hammock where the dogs flushed
three wild turkeys which made their
escape unscratched. Nothing further
occurred worthy of note and we re-