The Black-Tail Deer. 175 



night, as it was already the middle of the afternoon when 

 we started out. The country resembled in character 

 other parts of the cattle plains, but it was absolutely 

 bare of trees except along the bed of the river. The 

 rolling hills sloped steeply off into long valleys and deep 

 ravines. They were sparsely covered with coarse grass, 

 and also with an irregular growth of tall sage-brush, 

 which in some places gathered into dense thickets. A 

 beginner would have thought the country entirely too 

 barren of cover to hold deer, but a very little experi- 

 ence teaches one that deer will be found in thickets of 

 such short and sparse growth that it seems as if they 

 could hide nothing ; and, what is more, that they will 

 often skulk round in such thickets without being discov- 

 ered. And a black-tail is a bold, free animal, liking to 

 go out in comparatively open country, where he must 

 trust to his own powers, and not to any concealment, to 

 protect him from danger. 



Where the hilly country joined the alluvial river 

 bottom, it broke short off into steep bluffs, up which 

 none but a Western pony could have climbed. It is 

 really wonderful to see what places a pony can get over, 

 and the indifference with which it regards tumbles. In 

 getting up from the bottom we went into a wash-out, 

 and then led our ponies along a clay ledge, from which 

 we turned off and went straight up a very steep sandy 

 bluff. My companion was ahead ; just as he turned off the 

 ledge, and as I was right underneath him, his horse, in 

 plunging to try to get up the sand bluff, overbalanced 

 itself, and, after standing erect on its hind legs for a 



