miss. I will tell of an incident that I call a hit. A man
by the name of Wells and a brother of mine were camping near the old
Jersey Shore turnpike and were trapping, also hunting deer. One day
they had been off on the west side of the turnpike setting marten
traps and had built a number of deadfalls and had also set several
steel traps for foxes. On their way home to camp they had to cross
several low ridges which were good sections for deer. It was nearly
sundown and just the right time for deer to be on their feet feeding
so we spread out along one of the ridges in hopes that some of us
might get a shot. There was a good tracking snow and deer tracks were
plenty. We were on the last ridge before we dropped off into the
hollow to where the camp was and it was beginning to get dark in the
heavy timber. I had come out onto a short spur of the ridge and was
standing looking over the ground very carefully to see if I could not
see a deer feeding, when I heard a shot fired by one of the boys. In
a few moments a bunch of five or six deer came in sight, making their
way around the point at breakneck speed.

I opened fire on the bunch without taking aim at any particular deer,
as it was too dark to get down to real business and the deer were in
too much of a hurry to change their feeding grounds to give me very
much of a show. I was not stingy of my ammunition and pumped lead at
the bunch as long as I could guess where the deer were. As soon as I
had ceased to waste ammunition I heard my brother calling for me.
When I got to him he was at work taking the entrails out of a good
sized buck. We dragged the deer down to where the deer were when I
began shooting to see if I had chanced to hit one of the bunch. It
was too dark to see much but we found a little blood on the snow in
one place but concluded that I had not done much damage.

We dragged the buck that my brother had killed to camp, got our
supper and made plans for the next day's work. It was agreed that I
should look after the bunch of deer and see what effect my shots had
on the deer that we had found that had bled some. I was to work this
bunch of deer while the other boys went to look after the marten
traps, being quite sure that there would be a marten or two in the
traps, for we had built some deadfalls where we saw fresh marten
signs quite plenty.

The next morning I was up early and had breakfast before daylight and
ready to start out and carry out the work