54 Deer and Antelope of North America 



canter or gallop, so as to come quickly on any 

 deer before it could quite make up its mind what 

 course was best to follow. Sooner or later, as 

 I passed a thick clump of young ash or buck 

 brush, or came abruptly around a sharp bend, 

 there would be a snort, and then the thud, thud, 

 thud, of four hoofs striking the ground exactly in 

 unison, and away would go a mule-deer with the 

 peculiar bounding motion of its kind. The pony, 

 well accustomed to the work, stopped short, and 

 I was off its back in an instant. If the deer had 

 not made out exactly what I was, it would often 

 show by its gait that it was not yet prepared to 

 run straight out of sight. Under such circum- 

 stances I would wait until it stopped and turned 

 round to look back. If it was going very fast, I 

 took the shot running. Once I thus put up a 

 young buck from some thick brush in the bottom 

 of a winding washout. I leaped off the pony, 

 standing within ten yards of the washout. The 

 buck went up a hill on my left, and as he reached 

 the top and paused for a second on the sky line, 

 I fired. At the shot there was a great scram- 

 bling and crashing in the washout below me, and 

 another and larger buck came out and tore off 

 in frantic haste. I fired several shots at him, 

 finally bringing him down. Meanwhile, the other 

 buck had disappeared, but there was blood on his 

 trail, and I found him lying down in the next 



