"A Very Good Day"

"These deer, they come every day. There were 24 out there yesterday," said Sam Brungot, caretaker and fire warden on the 27,000-acre Dartmouth College Grant in northern New Hampshire.

Sam is 75 years old, loves animals, and when the herd is yarded where the snow is not so deep in the evergreens near his cabin, can't resist feeding the shy animals cracked corn or oats. Sam claims they like oats better.

"If you want a picture, come with me. I'll dump some oats near the back house there. You get in and I'll leave. They're watching - you can't see them but they're out there watching. When I leave,, they'll think we're both gone, then they'll come to feed."

Sam leaves and I am in the little structure with a square ventilating hole in the wall. Almost immediately I see movement among the trees. A deer is approaching. Soon there are four more. One is about fifteen feet away. The other four stay there nibbling, but they are very suspicious. The hole in the wall is too high so, standing on tip-toe, I look through the direct view-finder of the Rollieflex.... Click! Their heads come up, they look directly at me but, except for my hands shaking a little, I don't move. They go back to nibbling but there's always one pair of eyes looking up. A doe comes in from the left. She appears in the view-finder Click! She goes by and stops to nibble with the others. X ease the camera away from the opening. Now for 35mm. color shots. I take three shots without difficulty. And now for color movies. With a wideangle lens in place, the camera starts. It sounds like a locomotive. The deer orient the sound immediately and are off, so I let them run out of the finder.

It was a very good day. I wish Parker Merrow had been here. He might have liked it.

For the photographic result, seePage 19.