Wherever you go in the Northern forest you will find deer-paths.So plainly marked and well-trodden are they that it is easy to mistake them for trails made by hunters; but he who follows one of them is soon in difficulties.He may find himself climbing through cedar thickets an almost inaccessible cliff, or immersed in the intricacies of a marsh.The "run," in one direction, will lead to water; but, in the other, it climbs the highest hills, to which the deer retires, for safety and repose, in impenetrable thickets.The hunters, in winter, find them congregated in " yards," where they can be surrounded and shot as easily as our troops shoot Comanche women and children in their winter villages.These little paths are full of pitfalls among the roots and stones; and, nimble as the deer is, he sometimes breaks one of his slender legs in them.Yet he knows how to treat himself without a surgeon.I knew of a tame deer in a settlement in the edge of the forest who had the misfortune to break her leg.She immediately disappeared with a delicacy rare in an invalid, and was not seen for two weeks.Her friends had given her up, supposing that she had dragged herself away into the depths of the woods, and died of starvation, when one day she returned, cured of lameness, but thin as a virgin shadow.She had the sense to shun the doctor; to lie down in some safe place, and patiently wait for her leg to heal.I have observed in many of the more refined animals this sort of shyness, and reluctance to give trouble, which excite our admiration when noticed in mankind.
The deer is called a timid animal, and taunted with possessing courage only when he is "at bay"; the stag will fight when he can no longer flee; and the doe will defend her young in the face of murderous enemies.The deer gets little credit for this eleventh-hour bravery.But I think that in any truly Christian condition of society the deer would not be conspicuous for cowardice.I suppose that if the American girl, even as she is described in foreign romances, were pursued by bull-dogs, and fired at from behind fences every time she ventured outdoors, she would become timid, and reluctant to go abroad.When that golden era comes which the poets think is behind us, and the prophets declare is about to be ushered in by the opening of the "vials," and the killing of everybody who does not believe as those nations believe which have the most cannon;when we all live in real concord,--perhaps the gentle-hearted deer will be respected, and will find that men are not more savage to the weak than are the cougars and panthers.If the little spotted fawn can think, it must seem to her a queer world in which the advent of innocence is hailed by the baying of fierce hounds and the "ping" of the rifle.
Hunting the deer in the Adirondacks is conducted in the most manly fashion.There are several methods, and in none of them is a fair chance to the deer considered.A favorite method with the natives is practiced in winter, and is called by them "still hunting." My idea of still hunting is for one man to go alone into the forest, look about for a deer, put his wits fairly against the wits of the keen-scented animal, and kill his deer, or get lost in the attempt.There seems to be a sort of fairness about this.It is private assassination, tempered with a little uncertainty about finding your man.The still hunting of the natives has all the romance and danger attending the slaughter of sheep in an abattoir.As the snow gets deep, many deer congregate in the depths of the forest, and keep a place trodden down, which grows larger as they tramp down the snow in search of food.In time this refuge becomes a sort of "yard,"surrounded by unbroken snow-banks.The hunters then make their way to this retreat on snowshoes, and from the top of the banks pick off the deer at leisure with their rifles, and haul them away to market, until the enclosure is pretty much emptied.This is one of the surest methods of exterminating the deer; it is also one of the most merciful; and, being the plan adopted by our government for civilizing the Indian, it ought to be popular.The only people who object to it are the summer sportsmen.They naturally want some pleasure out of the death of the deer.
Some of our best sportsmen, who desire to protract the pleasure of slaying deer through as many seasons as possible, object to the practice of the hunters, who make it their chief business to slaughter as many deer in a camping season as they can.Their own rule, they say, is to kill a deer only when they need venison to eat.
Their excuse is specious.What right have these sophists to put themselves into a desert place, out of the reach of provisions, and then ground a right to slay deer on their own improvidence? If it is necessary for these people to have anything to eat, which I doubt, it is not necessary that they should have the luxury of venison.
One of the most picturesque methods of hunting the poor deer is called " floating." The person, with murder in his heart, chooses a cloudy night, seats himself, rifle in hand, in a canoe, which is noiselessly paddled by the guide, and explores the shore of the lake or the dark inlet.In the bow of the boat is a light in a "jack,"the rays of which are shielded from the boat and its occupants.Adeer comes down to feed upon the lily-pads.The boat approaches him.
He looks up, and stands a moment, terrified or fascinated by the bright flames.In that moment the sportsman is supposed to shoot the deer.As an historical fact, his hand usually shakes so that he misses the animal, or only wounds him; and the stag limps away to die after days of suffering.Usually, however, the hunters remain out all night, get stiff from cold and the cramped position in the boat, and, when they return in the morning to camp, cloud their future existence by the assertion that they "heard a big buck" moving along the shore, but the people in camp made so much noise that he was frightened off.
By all odds, the favorite and prevalent mode is hunting with dogs.