T. DeWitt Talmage notes some interesting facts about deer and
water-brooks.
But there are two facts to which I want to call your attention.
The first is that water-brooks not only saved the hunted deer by
throwing the dogs off the trail, but also by making it possible
for the deer to run in a straight line away from the dogs. I was
very much surprized to find out that these water-brooks are to
the deer what the compass is to a hunter in the woods--it keeps
the deer from traveling in a circle.
The pursued deer, unless drawn by the scent of water, always
runs in a circle. No sooner has a deer been shot at and the dogs
been turned loose, than at once the deer, unless he has the
guiding scent of water, seems to lose his reasoning faculties.
He will run like the wind. He will run on and on--five, ten,
fifteen or even twenty miles; but unless he can scent the
water-brooks from afar, he will always travel in a circle and
come back to the very place where the hunter first shot at
him--back to the place where he will be shot at again. This
circling flight of the deer is universally recognized. Some of
the different State Legislatures have enacted game laws, which
make it a felony for any man to hunt the deer by the means of
hounds. Why? If they did not make such a law, the deer of those
States would soon be exterminated. The circling flight of the
deer makes it a very simple matter for a few hunters to stand in
one place and shoot at the running game again and again, until
the deer have been entirely slaughtered. (Text.)
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