In killing deer, it is necessary to select the head, or aim directly behind the shoulder. A body-wound may eventually destroy the animal, but the chances are, that he will carry off the ball. Many, when severely struck, escape the shooter, and there have been stags killed in these mountains, who bore the marks of severe wounds, from the effects of which they had entirely recovered. The following singular and authenticated instance of a bullet lodging in what is usually considered a mortal place, and failing to occasion death, is extracted from a scientific periodical.*

A buck, that was remarkably fat and healthy in condition, in August 1816, was killed in Bradbury Park, and on opening him, it was discovered, that at some distant time he had been shot in the heart, a ball being found in a cyst in the substance of that viscus, about two inches from the apex. The surface of the cyst had a whitish appearance; the ball weighs two hundred and ninety-two grains, and was quite flat. Mr. Richardson, the park-keeper, who opened the animal, is of opinion the ball had struck some hard substance before entering the body of the deer. That the animal should subsist long after receiving this ball, is endeavoured to be accounted for from the instance * The Edinburgh Medical Journal.

of a soldier, who survived forty-nine hours after receiving a bayonet wound in the heart: however, the recovery from a gun-shot wound in an animal inferior to man can, in no respect, materially alter the importance of the fact, and of the great extent to which this vital organ may sustain an injury from external violence."

LETTER XVII.

An Alarm. Deceptive appearance of the weather.-A blank fishing day.-Recovery of the Setter.-Hydrophobia.-Melancholy Anecdote.-Loss of a Kennel.-Strange apathy of Irish servants.-Extraordinary preservation.

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A CIRCUMSTANCE to-day has given us considerable uneasiness; one of our best setters, who had been observed to look rather dull yesterday, has refused his food, and continues listless of what is passing around him. He was a sprightly, active-minded dog, and this torpidness is alarming. We promptly separated him from his companions, and have chained him in an adjoining cabin, under the especial observation of old Antony. The otter-killer is preparing to use his leechcraft, and I trust with good effect. Canine madness is a frightful visitation, and no caution can be too strict to guard against its melancholy consequences.

Who shall say that success in angling can be calculated upon with any thing like cer

tainty? If a inan were gifted with the properties of a walking barometer, the weather of this most capricious corner of the earth would set his prognostics at defiance. Never did a morning look more favourable; it was just such a one as an angler would swear by; a grey, dark, sober, settled sky, without any vexatious glare of threatening sunshine to interrupt his sport. The otter-killer was not so sanguine of this happy promise of good weather as we were. He observed certain little clouds, to which he gave some Irish name. "The wind, too, had shifted a point southerly since daybreak, and the pinkeens* were jumping, as they always jump when they expect more water.' We laughed at him; but An

tony was right.

We tried some beautiful pools; the fish were rising fast-they sprang over the surface of the water frequently, and no worse omen can threaten the fisherman with disappointment. If they did condescend to notice our flies, they rose as if they wished merely to reconnoitre them, or struck at them scornfully with their tails.

Still hoping that a change in the temper of the fish-for a lady is not more fanciful-might

* The usual name among the peasantry for samlets and trout fry.

yet crown our efforts with success, we proceeded down the river and pushed on for Pullgarrow. To angle here with the water clean and full, and the wind brisk from the westward, would almost repay a pilgrimage. For its extent, there is not a better salmon haunt in Christendom. The fish were rising in dozens, and where the river rushes into the neck of the pool, the constant breaking of the surface, by the rolling or springing of the salmon, was incredible. The number of fish collected in this pool must have been immense, for in every part of it they were rising simultaneously. But not one of them would touch the fly. I hooked a salmon accidentally in the side, and after a short and violent struggle the hold broke and I lost him. The mode of fishing attributed by Sir Humphrey Davy to the Galway fishermen*

* "In the river at Galway, in Ireland, I have seen above the bridge some hundreds of salmon lying in rapid streams, and from five to ten fishermen tempting them with every variety of fly, but in vain. After a fish has been thrown over a few times, and risen once or twice and refused the fly, he rarely ever took any notice of it again in that place."+

"When the water is low and clear in this river, the Galway fishermen resort to the practice of fishing with a naked hook, endeavouring to entangle it in the body of the fish; a most unartistlike practice."-Salmonia.

† Appendix, No. XVII.