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& the horn had sounded often to withdraw the pack from "false scents" and our patience & hopes were nearly exhausted, when from a thicket near by a deer with tail & head erect leaped, in fear & uncertainty, [correction/insertion] from its concealment & instantly, ho! Juno, Tully, Boxer! & the hounds were in full cry we followed at full speed & I instantly lost all fear of ditches & dikes in the excitement of the chase. The sharp crack of a rifle told of the huntsman's alertness, but it failed to hit its mark & merely turned the course of the animal so that my friends lost their venison - We rode for some time & followed the chorus of the hounds until we lost them in the distance, the deer having chosen an unusual course - A day after he was found, some ten miles distant where the dogs had killed it - The chase has its charms, but I dislike to see the poor creatures wantonly murdered. -- A large mocassin snake paid with his life the penalty of intruding himself on our presence as we were about to seat ourselves on his residence an old log - the rattle-