1 68 The Black-Tail Deer. 



stole out of the cedars. Both of us fired at once, and 

 with a convulsive spring he rolled over backward, one 

 bullet having gone through his neck, and the other 

 probably mine having broken a hind leg. Immediately 

 afterward, another buck broke from the upper edge of 

 the cover, near the top of the plateau, and, though I 

 took a hurried shot at him, bounded over the crest, and 

 was lost to sight. 



We now determined to go down into the ravine 

 and look for the doe, and as there was a good deal of 

 snow in the bottom and under the trees, we knew we 

 could soon tell if she were wounded. After a little 

 search we found her track, and walking along it a few 

 yards, came upon some drops and then a splash of blood. 

 There being no need to hurry, we first dressed the dead 

 buck a fine, fat fellow, but with small, misshapen horns, 

 and then took up the trail of the wounded doe. Here, 

 however, I again committed an error, and paid too much 

 heed to the trail and too little to the country round 

 about ; and while following it with my eyes down on the 

 ground in a place where it was faint, the doe got up some 

 distance ahead and to one side of me, and bounded off 

 round a corner of the ravine. The bed where she had 

 lain was not very bloody, but from the fact of her having 

 stopped so soon, I was sure she was badly wounded. 

 However, after she got out of the snow the ground was as 

 hard as flint, and it was impossible to track her; the 

 valley soon took a turn, and branched into a tangle of 

 coulies and ravines. I deemed it probable that she would 

 not go up hill, but would run down the course of the main 



