The first light powdering called "hunting snows" fell in October, and then the men of the Back Country set out on the chase.

Their object was meat--buffalo, deer, elk, bear-for the winter larder, and skins to send out in the spring by pack-horses to the coast in trade for iron, steel, and salt.

The rainfall in North Carolina was much heavier than in Virginia and, from autumn into early winter, the Yadkin forests were sheeted with rain; but wet weather, so far from deterring the hunter, aided him to the kill.
In blowing rain, he knew he would find the deer herding in the sheltered places on the hillsides.

In windless rain, he knew that his quarry ranged the open woods and the high places.

The fair play of the pioneer held it a great disgrace to kill a deer in winter when the heavy frost had crusted the deep snow.