The Columbia Blacktail 249 



of the first deer. It was more than eleven more 

 before I was able to hit one. Yet I never enjoyed 

 anything so much as the consciousness that the 

 game was all around me and that only my own 

 stupidity was at fault. 



At first the tyro wants a deer and cares very 

 little how he gets it. Well, there are everywhere 

 plenty of open places, until you get far into the 

 North, where the openings are too barren or defi- 

 cient in such shrubs as the deer loves. But every- 

 where on the southern half of the playground of 

 this deer there are grand open ridges only partly 

 covered with timber, having long avenues down 

 which you can see clearly for many a rod. So 

 there are sunny slopes on which deer stand to 

 catch the morning sun before going off to lie 

 down for the day, and big shady flats where on a 

 hot morning they may stay as long in the shade 

 before going to rest. Then there are plenty of 

 sharp ridges ending in points over which the 

 chinquapin waves, with the grand madrono and 

 the laurel, but with plenty of open spots on which 

 the deer will often stop to survey the landscape 

 as he comes up from below, and where, in cool 

 weather, he prefers to lie in the sun rather than 

 in the depths of the timber. 



As a rule it will rarely pay you to look for this 

 deer in bed. In this respect he is the worst of 

 his tribe. Unless you have snow to track on, or 



