206 Deer of the Pacific Coast 



across the saddle in his lap he just tipped it over 

 and fired. His horse sprung from under him so 

 quickly that my horse almost trod on him as he 

 rolled over the ground, but he bagged the game, 

 and its coat was blackened with the powder. They 

 also drop their heads and so crouch in low brush, 

 that a very large buck can almost sneak out of 

 sight in a good potato patch. When you have 

 been taken in a few times in this way, your respect 

 for the animal increases rapidly. 



And it increases still more when this deer starts 

 in full career, for there is no more magnificent 

 target for the rifle than when he concludes that 

 hiding may be a failure and that flight is safer. 

 Where the chaparral is high he may run through 

 without bounding above it. But where it is about 

 six feet, or even seven, he seems to take special 

 pleasure in drawing your fire by swinging full 

 above it where entirely unnecessary. This makes 

 the deer's course a line of glistening curves on 

 which it is very difficult to make calculation, 

 especially when he works into the combination 

 a new twist to one side or the other at almost 

 every spring, beside varying the height of every 

 leap. As a rule your sole reliance in such case 

 is speed of fire. On open ground you can make 

 calculations on the up-and-down motion as well 

 as on the forward — that is, sometimes — and fire 

 every shot as you should, as if it were your last. 



