The Columbia Blacktail 229 



flattened crown over the tall shaft of the incense- 

 cedar that rises red and shaggy from the hillside 

 below ; and even farther down where the alder 

 weaves arcades over the hissing brook in which 

 the trout begin to flash, where the call of the 

 mountain-quail rings along the tumbling hills, and 

 the wings of the dove whistle through the silvery 

 sheen of the fir. From there down to the foot- 

 hills, and in their shaggy pockets, and so on to 

 the very shore of the shining sea, this deer will 

 be found wherever there is cover enough to fur- 

 nish hiding. 



Before the snow is deep nearly all the deer 

 leave the high mountains, and in the Cascades 

 most of them start even before the falling of any 

 snow that is to be permanent. They wander 

 down into the lower and more brushy portions 

 of the range, sometimes on well-defined trails, 

 but quite as often without any. Here, too, there 

 is plenty of snow on the higher hills, and most 

 of the deer keep in the lower flats and brushy 

 gorges or go on to the Coast Range. Here they 

 join a number of their fellows that did not go to 

 the mountains, but remained all summer in the 

 Coast Range. The principle on which only a 

 portion of these deer travel so regularly to the 

 high mountains every spring is not known. It is 

 plainly not for want of food, for the necessities of 

 breeding, to escape gnats, flies, or other such 



