ing down a short
sawtooth point or a short spur of the main ridge. The track had been
made during the night when it was still snowing and in some places it
was hard to follow the trail owing to so much snow falling. The track
led down this spur in the direction of low hemlocks. I was working my
way very carefully thinking that the deer had gone down into those
low hemlocks to get shelter from the storm and were lying down in the
thicket. The thicket was just over a little cone or ridge so that I
could not see the surface of the ground and I was dead sure that I
would catch my game lying in his bed.

In a moment a dozen deer came into sight as suddenly as though they
had come up out of the ground and I was suddenly taken with one of
the worst fevers that any man ever had. I at once began firing into
the bunch. The deer seemingly did not notice the report of the gun
but kept steadily on their trail. I knew the condition I was in and
that I was shooting wide of the mark. I then singled out one of the
largest deer, a good sized buck, and tried to pick out a spot on the
back of his shoulders as though I was shooting at a target. I could
not keep the gun within range of the deer by ten feet, so when I
thought the gun had jumped into line, I pulled the trigger. The deer
made no alteration in its course or speed but kept steadily bounding
along. The deer were not more than forty yards from me. I dropped on
one knee and leaned the gun across my knee, grabbed a handful of snow
and jammed it into my face, then placed the gun to my face and began
firing at the deer again with no better results.

When the bunch of deer were nearly a hundred yards away and they had
all passed over the brow of the hill, except one large doe that was a
little behind the rest, the fever left me as suddenly as it came on.
I pulled the gun onto her and fired. She staggered, gave a lunge down
the hill and fell dead. I could have told within an inch of where the
ball struck her before I went to the deer. I could not have told
within fifty feet of where my other shots went.

I followed my drove of deer a short distance to make sure that I had
not wounded any of them and then I dragged the doe down into the
hollow to dress and hang up. Pretty soon Mr. Corwin came to me and
seeing only the one deer asked me if that was the only one I had
killed with all that shooting. Mr. Corwin said that he had counted
nine shots that I had fired. When I told him the story