Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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23 ' And will you come if I fire? you ask beginning to feel lone- some. The answer to this is yes; three shots mean distress but you are also warned that in the ordinary way, if hunting alone and lost, all ammunition should be preserved for firing after dark. Then your plight will be recognized. Suddenly you are alone and the forest stands in dark silence about you. The next rendezvous is in an hour and half ' s time; the distance of a mile will have been covered. What only a moment ago had been a clearly defined ridge now becomes rises, depressions and ledges. Walking carefully, yo utest each footstep before put- ting on a full weight because leaves and rotten logs and treacherous. You follow deer tracks when possible, because deer choose the easiest course through the thin low branches; frequently stopping to listen every few feet, you are uncertain whether you hope to hear a crashing in the woods or not; you keep looking at your rifle to make sure the safety catch is on in the event of a fall; you wonder if the river is really below; you cross a brook. Yes, it ' s flowing to the right. Having to make a slow detour from a straight line to get round a rocky mound you cross another brook. The water is flowing to the LEFT. Panic. You ' re lost. You must have gone over a ridge and down the wrong side. After the first rush of blood to the head you realize the brook doubled back and was doing a loop. But you ' re shaken and sit down to cool oft uninterested for the moment in any game. Suddenly there is a shot on your left and then another. Now what is one supposed to do? After standing a few moments you decide to go on. The silence is more mysterious than ever. And the time eventually comes when you jump your first deer. Ten feet away, from behind some rocks, there is a crash and something has lept into the thick firs. Another crash and another further away, then silence. Well, you are rather gratified that you automatically got your rifle up to your shoulder, safety catch off, but you ' ve seen nothing. You know that perhaps 50 yards away there is a big buck watching you. Or perhaps he can ' t see you and you remember that you have been told a most terrifying noise is the breathing of a buck who can smell but not see you. Then you recognize the heavy breathing. It ' s yours. The situation becomes slightly ludicrous. If you move, the deer will also move but in this pause you have time to sum up reactions. The jumping was mutual. If you didn ' t jump as far as the deer it was because you have only two legs. Finally a mild hysteria sets in and you laugh silently feeling the necessity to suppress it, as in church, for fear of disturbing the hidden animal.

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22 JUNIOR HOUSE COMPETITION Watlington 42 - 27 Saltus vs Butterfield 74 - 39 Darrell vs Darrell 103 - 68 Saltus vs Butterfield 61 — 59 Watlington vs 1. Saltus. 2. Darrell. 3. Watlington. 4. Butterfield. Deer Hunting By Mrs. R. E. E. Booker Deer hunting in any country is a game of chance but to hope to shoot a deer in New Hampshire you must be out-of-doors with a loaded gun, preferably a 30.30 the greater portion of each day during the open season Nov. 16 — Dec. 16. Your deer is just as likely to be crossing in a populated district as roaming the forest. When its your turn to get a deer, you ' ll get it if you can shoot straight, and don ' t have buck fever, like the man who cocked his gun but never fired a shot; or the man who pointed a gun and said bang, bang. Perhaps it is partly the desire to discover one ' s reactions to excitement that brings on the first attack of hunting fever. Once the virus is in the system nothing but an accident is likely to cure the love of hunting. No day spent hunting unsuccessfully is a waste or loss. There is the facination of the woods, the beauty of snow-topped mountains glimpsed from ledges and the opportunity to study the hunter and his woodsmanship — this man wearing a red and black checked cap and mackinaw wit whom you have arranged to hunt. In ordinary life he may be a farmer, a garage owner but in any event a native of these parts . You watch him silently trekking along a logging road, rifle under his arm; sometimes he stops and carefully lifts some leaves; without appearing to twist and turn, his eyes are moving all over the terrain. Off the road he may shuffle through leaves but avoids breaking a twig. Finally you see him as a part of the landscape, in spite of his hunter ' s red, because he himself becomes a creature of the woods. The picture is thrilling in its agelessness. At last, taking note of the direction of the wind, he assumes command. There are quiet instructions to go up a ridge and follow along the top. He will be a thousand yards on your left. The river will be below you on your right. Most of the time you will be able to hear it. Any brooks you cross flow down to the river. You won ' t get lost because you could always follow them down. He will drive the game towards you.

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24 Another common saying comes to mind — if you jump a deer it ' s not your deer, and with this consoling thought you resume the chase eventually rather pleased that your timing and distance covered were well-judged because your hunter is where he said he would be carrying a ruffed grouse shot with a rifle! I thought I ' d got over the ridge and down the other side, you say, but it was explained that that couldn ' t happen without I would have crossed your tracks. The instinct to hunt is as old as man and one should bear in mind that an instinct to protect itself against danger is just as old in a deer. The game of deer hunting is a fair one when a man goes alone into the woods with a rifle. Every sense of the animal is more highly developed than that of man. The deer is speedier. To counter-balance these assets man has a mechanical weapon and, if he is a hunter of some experience, a knoweldge of the habits of deer; that a deer feeds at night, perhaps in orchards or gardens; that he goes up at day-break from swampy land to ridges in the mountains to bed down for a morning nap. If he is jumped he will travel higher, perhaps to a ledge, then lie down facing his tracks so that he should be circled and approached from behind; that a deer is curious and will halt to peer down and see what is going on. One is aware when moving through the appar- ently empty woods that in a thicket 50 yards away, invisible to man ' s eye, a creature may be watching. The deer will know the minute your eye catches sight of him and be off. And if something moves you must first wait to see head and feet in order to avoid the chances of firing at another hunter thereby putting yourself in the trigger-happy category and newspaper headlines. Safety catch removed you take aim behind the foreleg in order not to damage the head because you might wish to mount it. Your heart is racing. Perhaps by the time you get coordinated the deer is off. You may only wound him. A deer with a broken leg can get away. If there is snow on the ground you may trace him but often a poor shot means a wounded creature disappearing to die in the woods. Or he may fall, after running a few yards, shot through the heart. Then, trembling with excitement, you realize you ' ve got your one deer of the season which the law allows. Most people carry a flask when hunting but few need stimulants at this stage. And some in the excitement of the moment forget the most import- ant formality of all — to tag the deer immediately. Pinned on your red hunting cap plainly visible as required by the law, in a metal case, is a licence, for which as a non-resident you paid fifteen dollars. In this is a coupon to be filled in with name and date which must be attached to the deer. No one is allowed to have in