The High-Stakes Weekend Hunt at Lake Washington

Recreation is as essential to the business man, the professional, and the laborer as food and healthful air. It breaks up the monotony to which the mind is inclined to run, and rests it by prosecution of unconventional and pleasant scenes. It was in this spirit that a party consisting of Judge J. K. Lewis, Mr. Edwards, Joe Sorter, and myself left Seattle on Saturday last for a hunt for deer on the shores of Lake Washington. We arrived at the lake and proceeded to row for several miles until we reached our camp. After pitching our tent and partaking of a meal, we received our instructions from Joe, the commander-in-chief. While he took the two hounds to the woods to start the antlered monarch from his sylvan bower, we waited and listened for the baying of the hounds.

Eventually, we struck out in a canoe for a trolling expedition. The canoe was boarded over for a space just sufficient to afford one restless canine space to stand. I was the propelling power of the canoe, but that vessel obeyed the motion of the dogs, not the navigator. Suddenly, we heard the baying of the hounds, and a fine buck leaped into the water and swam directly toward us. We struck out after that swimming deer. In the meantime, Joe appeared with his canoe, and then commenced a race for honor, glory, and venison. Owing to the shifting condition of our excited dogs, we were impeded, but Joe passed us and began to fire at the game. Judge Lewis also opened fire. The cannonading was incessant for two or three minutes, until, just as the buck reached the shore, a bullet from Joe’s rifle struck him in the brain, and he plunged forward and died on the edge of his own domain. Later that day, we encountered more game, including a spike buck that led us on a long chase, and a black bear that interrupted our recovery of a carcass. We returned to Seattle on Monday evening, rejuvenated, reinvigorous, and proud of our achievements.