The Creating of Game Refuges 



This is almost impenetrable. It is very largely 

 composed of scrub oak, buckthorn, chamisal or 

 greasewood, with a scattered growth of wild lilac, 

 wild cherry, etc. So far as the deer make this their 

 permanent home, there is no fear of their exter- 

 mination. They may be hunted effectively only 

 with the most extreme caution. Not one person in 

 a thousand ever attains to the level of a still-hunter 

 whose accomplishment guarantees him success 

 under such conditions. There are men of this sort, 

 but these are artists in their pursuit, whose attain- 

 ments, like those of the professional generally, are 

 beyond comparison with those of the ordinary 

 amateur. To hunt successfully in the chaparral, re- 

 quires a special genius. One must have exhaustless 

 patience, tact trained by a lifetime of this sort of 

 work, perseverance incapable of discouragement, 

 the silence of an Indian, and in this phrase — when 

 we are dealing with the skill of one who can make 

 progress without sound through the tangles of the 

 dry and stiff California chaparral — is Involved an 

 exercise of skill comparable only to the fineness of 

 touch of a Joachim or a St. Gaudens. This sort 

 of hunter marks one end of the scale of perfection; 

 near the other and more familiar extreme is found 

 the individual of whom this story is told. He was 

 an Englishman and had just returned from a trip 



425 



