90 Deer and Antelope of North America 



of success depended upon our having a sufficient 

 number of guns to watch the different passes and 

 runways. Accordingly, my own share of the chase 

 was usually limited to the fun of listening to the 

 hounds, and of galloping at headlong speed from 

 one point where I thought the deer would not 

 pass to some other, which, as a matter of fact, it 

 did not pass either. The redeeming feature of 

 the situation was that if I did get a shot, I almost 

 always got my deer. Under ordinary circum- 

 stances to merely wound a deer is worse than not 

 hitting it ; but when there are hounds along they 

 are certain to bring the wounded animal to bay, 

 and so on these hunts we usually got venison. 



Of course, I occasionally did get a whitetail 

 when I was alone, whether with the hounds or 

 without them. There were whitetail on the very 

 bottom on which the ranch-house stood, as well 

 as on the bottom opposite, and on those to the 

 right and left up and down stream. Occasionally 

 I have taken the hounds out alone, and then as 

 they chevied the whitetail around the bottom, 

 have endeavored by rapid running on foot or on 

 horseback to get to some place from which I 

 could obtain a shot. The deer knew perfectly 

 well that the hounds could not overtake them, 

 and they would usually do a great deal of sneak- 

 ing round and round through the underbrush and 

 cottonwoods before they finally made up their 



