The Whitetail Deer 67 



there extend some distance up the mouths of the 

 large creeks. In these places the whitetail and 

 the mule-deer may exist in close proximity ; but 

 normally neither invades the haunts of the other. 

 Along the ordinary plains river, such as the 

 Little Missouri, where I ranched for many years, 

 there are three entirely different types of country 

 through which a man passes as he travels away 

 from the bed of the river. There is first the allu- 

 vial river bottom covered with cottonwood and 

 box-elder, together with thick brush. These bot- 

 toms may be a mile or two across, or they may 

 shrink to but a few score yards. After the exter- 

 mination of the wapiti, which roamed everywhere, 

 the only big game animal found in them was the 

 whitetail deer. Beyond this level alluvial bottom 

 the ground changes abruptly to bare, rugged hills 

 or fantastically carved and shaped Bad Lands 

 rising on either side of the river, the ravines, 

 coulies, creeks, and canyons twisting through 

 them in every direction. Here there are patches 

 of ash, cedar, pine, and occasionally other trees, 

 but the country is very rugged, and the cover very 

 scanty. This is the home of the mule-deer, and, 

 in the roughest and wildest parts, of the bighorn. 

 The absolutely clear and sharply defined line of 

 demarkation between this rough, hilly country, 

 flanking the river, and the alluvial river bottom, 

 serves as an equally clearly marked line of de- 



