Hunting from the Ranch, 31 



At this time I hunt on foot, only using the horse to 

 carry me to and from the hunting ground ; for while 

 rutting, the deer, being restless, do not try to escape 

 observation by lying still, and on the other hand are apt 

 to wander about and so are easily seen from a distance. 

 When I have reached a favorable place I picket my horse 

 and go from vantage point to vantage point, carefully 

 scanning the hillsides, ravines, and brush coulies from 

 every spot that afifords a wide outlook. The quarry once 

 seen it may be a matter of hours, or only of minutes, to 

 approach it, accordingly as the wind and cover are or are 

 not favorable. The walks for many miles over the hills, 

 the exercise of constant watchfulness, the excitement of 

 the actual stalk, and the still greater excitement of the 

 shot, combine to make still-hunting the blacktail, in the 

 sharp fall weather, one of the most attractive of hardy out- 

 door sports. Then after the long, stumbling walk home- 

 wards, through the cool gloom of the late evening, comes 

 the meal of smoking venison and milk and bread, and the 

 sleepy rest, lying on the bear-skins, or sitting in the rock- 

 ing chair before the roaring fire, while the icy wind moans 

 outside. 



Earlier in the season, while the does are still nursing 

 the fawns, and until the bucks have cleaned the last ves- 

 tiges of velvet from their antlers, the deer lie very close, 

 and wander round as little as may be. In the spring and 

 early summer, in the ranch country, we hunt big game 

 very little, and then only antelope ; because in hunting 

 antelope there is no danger of killing aught but bucks. 

 About the first of August we begin to hunt blacktail, 



