with his sharp horns, and striking and trampling furiously with his
forelegs, which, being extremely muscular and armed with sharp hoofs,
are capable of inflicting very severe wounds. Aware of this
circumstance, the hunter approaches him with caution, and either secures
his prey by a second shot, where the first has been but partially
successful, or, as is more frequently the case, causes his dog to seize
the wounded animal, while he watches his own opportunity to stab him
with his hunting-knife. Sometimes where a noble buck is the victim, and
the hunter is impatient or inexperienced, terrible conflicts ensue on
such occasions. Another mode is to watch at night, in the neighbourhood
of the salt-licks. These are spots where the earth is impregnated with
saline particles, or where the salt-water oozes through the soil. Deer
and other grazing animals frequent such places, and remain for hours
licking the earth. The hunter secretes himself here, either in the thick
top of a tree, or most generally in a screen erected for the purpose,
and artfully concealed, like a mask-battery, with logs or green boughs.
This practice is pursued only in the summer, or early in the autumn, in
cloudless nights, when the moon shines brilliantly, and objects may be
readily discovered. At the rising of the moon, or shortly after, the
deer having risen from their beds approach the lick. Such places are
generally denuded of timber, but surrounded by it; and as the animal is
about to emerge from the shade into the clear moonlight, he stops,
looks cautiously around and snuffs the air. Then he advances a few
steps, and stops again, smells the ground, or raises his expanded
nostrils, as if "he snuffed the approach of danger in every tainted
breeze." The hunter sits motionless, and almost breathless, waiting
until the animal shall get within rifle-shot, and until its position, in
relation to the hunter and the light, shall be favourable, when he fires
with an unerring aim. A few deer only can be thus taken in one night,
and after a few nights, these timorous animals are driven from the