1 66 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



over it once or twice without recognizing its real 

 nature. In the brush it is still more difficult, and 

 there a deer s form is often absolutely indistinguish 

 able from the surroundings, as one peers through 

 the mass of interlacing limbs and twigs. Once an 

 old hunter and myself in walking along the ridge 

 of a scoria butte passed by without seeing them, 

 three black-tail lying among the scattered bowlders 

 of volcanic rock on the hillside, not fifty yards from 

 us. After a little practical experience a would-be 

 hunter learns not to expect deer always, or even gen 

 erally, to appear as they do when near by or sud 

 denly startled; but on the contrary to keep a sharp 

 look-out on every dull-looking red or yellow patch 

 he sees in a thicket, and to closely examine any 

 grayish-looking object observed on the hillsides, for 

 it is just such small patches or obscure-looking ob 

 jects which are apt, if incautiously approached, to 

 suddenly take to themselves legs, and go bounding 

 off at a rate which takes them out of danger before 

 the astonished tyro has really waked up to the fact 

 that they are deer. The first lesson to be learned 

 in still-hunting is the knowledge of how to tell what 

 objects are and what are not deer; and to learn it 

 is by no means as easy a task as those who have 

 never tried it would think. 



When he has learned to see a deer, the novice 

 then has to learn to hit it, and this again is not the 

 easy feat it seems. That he can do well with a 

 shotgun proves very little as to a man s skill with 

 the rifle, for the latter carries but one bullet, and can 



