232 Deer of the Pacific Coast 



directions without giving you a shot that you 

 could make except by chance. The best hunting 

 is farther south, where the timber is more open 

 and the brush lower. Nothing can surpass that 

 part of southwestern Oregon which the blank 

 space on the map shows unsurveyed, especially 

 on the head waters of the Coquille River and in 

 the Rogue River Mountains. It is so rough that 

 the hunter almost never goes there, while the 

 scarcity of feed in places makes it no trifling 

 matter to keep your horses strong enough to take 

 you out again. But it is a grand, picturesque 

 country, the natural home of the elk as well as 

 the deer, abounding in grouse, mountain-quail, 

 and trout, and well worth a visit by one who 

 wants to see the wild and the new, far beyond the 

 orbit of the tenderfoot or his stylish guide. 



Like other deer the blacktail rarely touches 

 grass. He loves the tender leaves and twigs of 

 the salal, huckleberry, and other shrubs that 

 abound on the greater part of his range. So 

 numerous are these that he can always get 

 enough, and you need never trouble yourself to 

 know what he is living on. It will cut very little 

 figure in your hunting, and aid you very little in 

 tracing a deer's movements as it often does in 

 many other countries. In a few places their 

 movements might be influenced by acorns in 

 season, but for only a short time, if at all. 



