164 The Black-Tail Deer. 



fawns should be killed, as many of the latter are in the 

 spotted coat. Besides it is very hot in the middle of the 

 day, though pleasant walking in the early morning and 

 late evening, and with cool nights. December is apt to 

 be too cold, although with many fine days. The true 

 time for the chase of the black-tail is in the three fall 

 months. Then the air is fresh and bracing, and a man 

 feels as if he could walk or ride all day long without 

 tiring. In the bright fall weather the country no longer 

 keeps its ordinary look of parched desolation, and the 

 landscape loses its sameness at the touch of the frost. 

 Where every thing before had been gray or dull green 

 there are now patches of russet red and bright yellow. 

 The clumps of ash, wild plum-trees, and rose-bushes 

 in the heads and bottoms of the sloping valleys become 

 spots of color that glow among the stretches of brown and 

 withered grass ; the young cotton-woods, growing on the 

 points of land round which flow the rivers and streams, 

 change to a delicate green or yellow, on which the eye 

 rests with pleasure after having so long seen only the 

 dull drab of the prairies. Often there will be days of 

 bitter cold, when a man who sleeps out in the open feels 

 the need of warm furs ; but still more often there will be 

 days and days of sunny weather, not cold enough to 

 bring discomfort, but yet so cool that the blood leaps 

 briskly through a man's veins and makes him feel that to 

 be out and walking over the hills is a pleasure in itself, 

 even were he not in hopes of any moment seeing the sun 

 glint on the horns and hide of some mighty buck, as 

 it rises to face the intruder. On days such as these, 



