174 The Black-Tail Deer. 



it is simply impossible for any team to drag a loaded or 

 even an empty wagon. Such are steep canyons, or muddy- 

 bottomed streams with sheer banks, especially if the latter 

 have rotten edges. The horses must then be crossed first 

 and the wagon dragged over afterward by the aid of long 

 ropes. Often it may be needful to build a kind of rude bridge 

 or causeway on which to get the animals over ; and if the 

 canyon is very deep the wagon may have to be taken in 

 pieces, let down one side, and hauled up the other. An 

 immense amount of labor may be required to get over a 

 very trifling distance. Pack animals, however, can go 

 almost anywhere that a man can. 



Although still-hunting on foot, as described above, is 

 on the whole the best way to get deer, yet there are many 

 places where from the nature of the land the sport can be 

 followed quite as well on horseback, than which there is 

 no more pleasant kind of hunting. The best shot I ever 

 made in my life a shot into which, however, I am afraid 

 the element of chance entered much more largely than the 

 element of skill was made while hunting black-tail on 

 horseback. 



We were at that time making quite a long trip with 

 the wagon, and were going up the fork of a plains river 

 in Western Montana. As we were out of food, those 

 two of our number who usually undertook to keep the 

 camp supplied with game determined to make a hunt off 

 back of the river after black-tail ; for though there were 

 some white-tail in the more densely timbered river bottoms, 

 we had been unable to get any. It was arranged that the 

 wagon should go on a few miles, and then halt for the 



