154 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



Soon another snow squall came on, harder than the first, 

 and fearing a blizzard, made my way hurriedly back to 

 camp. The weather continued to be squally during the 

 afternoon but it snowed very little and cleared up in the 

 evening. 



Next morning we started out early, each going his own 

 way, as we both chose to hunt separately. The best time 

 to hunt black tail deer is early in the morning and late in 

 the afternoon, because they are then up and feeding, ex- 

 cepting in a dark, dreary kind of a day, when they are apt 

 to be abroad at any time. We were in a black tail country 

 and I knew it, because they like a rough country, and this 

 was rough, and because I had seen plenty of signs of their 

 presence the previous day. I went directly into the hills 

 to the northwest. The hills were very rough, rocky and 

 steep and some of them moderately high, timbered in places 

 with a growth of scrubby pine trees and occasional thickets 

 of little young pines, with narrow draws and pockets in the 

 hillsides filled with a thick growth of red cedar. Going up 

 hill and down hill for about a mile, I crossed a narrow val- 

 ley, then up the side of a low very steep ridge. This ridge 

 was very narrow, covered with rocks of all sizes from that 

 of a pebble to that of a good sized chicken house, and 

 timbered with pine and cedar thickets. Just as the top of 

 the ridge was reached I caught sight of a black tail doe. 

 She was running along the ridge to the southwest and was 

 out of sight before there was any chance to shoot. About 

 a quarter of a mile off in the direction the doe was running, 

 the ridge widened, and joined the main hill, which was at 

 that place quite thickly covered with pine trees, some of 

 them quite large, but without under growth, so that a deer 

 might be seen almost anywhere in the timber. Following 

 on carefully, I had gone about half way to the hill, when 

 I stopped to look and listen, shielded from sight by a big 

 rock that was as high as my shoulders. There was nothing 



