60 Deer and Antelope of North America 



impossibility to approach him unperceived. After 

 careful study of the ground I abandoned the effort, 

 and returned to my former position, having spent 

 several hours of considerable labor in vain. It 

 was now about noon, and I thought I would lie 

 still to see what he would do when he got up, and 

 accordingly I ate my lunch stretched at full length 

 in the long grass which sheltered me from the 

 wind. From time to time I peered cautiously 

 between two stones toward where the buck lay. 

 It was nearly mid-afternoon before he moved. 

 Sometimes mule-deer rise with a single motion, 

 all four legs unbending like springs, so that the 

 four hoofs touch the ground at once. This old 

 buck, however, got up very slowly, looked about 

 for certainly five minutes, and then came directly 

 down the hill and toward me. When he had 

 nearly reached the bottom of the valley between 

 us he turned to the right and sauntered rapidly 

 down it. I slipped back and trotted as fast as I 

 could without losing my breath along the hither 

 side of the spur which lay between me and the 

 buck. While I was out of sight he had for some 

 reason made up his mind to hurry, and when I 

 was still fifty yards from the end of the spur he 

 came in sight just beyond it, passing at a swing- 

 ing trot. I dropped on one knee so quickly that 

 for a moment he evidently could not tell what I 

 was, — my buckskin shirt and gray slouch-hat 



