TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 22Q 



their tails from side to side nervously, and keep looking back 

 on the trail. But, when once satisfied of real danger, they 

 are considered almost the fleetest animals to be found in the 

 mountains. 



At times, they range along the streams with the white- 

 tail deer and again they are in the mountains, with those of 

 the black-tail family. The young have white spots along their 

 sides and little black or brown spots on their throats, which 

 disappear when they are grown. The males have tiny horns 

 like the white-tail deer, with one curved antler. The points 

 grow out of this main antler and stand up straight. The 

 two main beams incline together, but never fork, as do those 

 of the black-tail deer. 



The hoof is broad at the heel, quite pointed at the toe. 

 The head of the female is almost like that of a fox,, broad at 

 the ears, tapering to a sharp point at the nose. I doubt very 

 much if one were ever killed by a sportsman after looking 

 into its pleading eyes, so full of tender emotion, and of that 

 magnetic charm, known only to those who have often met 

 wild animals on mountain and plain. 



With the vanishing buffalo went also the beautiful 

 gazelle, and to-day the grandeur of mountain and valley is 

 bereft of their charming presence, leaving a lack which can- 

 not be supplied. Even the few sad relics of bones and horns 

 will soon have reverted to the earth, whence they sprang. 



On the bank of the Seven Blackfoot, which extends 

 between the Musselshell and the Missouri rivers, lies a 

 country as wild now as when its savage tribes joined there 

 in scalp dances in the seventeenth century. The country was 

 shattered by volcanic eruptions long before the advent of the 

 savages, at the time when the mastodon roamed this un- 

 known region, and where bisons, mountain sheep, bears, cou- 

 gars, deer, and elks still stalk abroad. Natural pyramids 



