96 IN THE BIG HORN MOUNTAINS. 



him or not, and at the same time almost lost in admiration of 

 the grand panorama spread out before me, he is rapidly 

 speeding away from me. Of course it is possible to follow 

 him. A man can go anywhere that a deer can if he (the man) 

 only have "sand" enough. And, awakened by this reflec- 

 tion, I grasped my rifle tightly in my right hand, made a 

 spring, and next touched the earth twenty feet below where I 

 jumped from. By catching firm hold of a sapling I was 

 enabled to maintain my footing and steady myself for the 

 next bound. It was not necessary to pay close attention to 

 the trail of the deer, for between falling, sliding, plowing 

 through the snow, and rolling down detached rocks, he left a 

 trail that might almost have been mistaken for that of a small 

 avalanche. 



He soon tired of this perpendicular flight, however, and 

 began to tack like a vessel sailing against the wind. This 

 enabled me to gain rapidly upon him, for by holding on to 

 trees and bushes, a faculty he did not possess, I could con- 

 tinue my descent in a straight course. Several times we 

 encountered perpendicular ledges of rock cropping out of 

 the main wall and towering to a height of fifty, seventy, and 

 even a hundred feet. In passing some of these it was neces- 

 sary to make long detours. Then there were chasms and 

 fissures from five to twenty feet wide. Some of these I could 

 jump across, but was compelled to round many of them. 



Still I kept on and on, until at last the frightful descent, 

 with all its dangers, toils and vicissitudes, was accomplished, 

 and I stood upon the bank of the clear, cold mountain torrent 

 that flowed with a wild, roaring, echoing music through the 

 canyon. 



Into this the buck had plunged, and had evidently waded 

 down it. This was another trick by which he hoped to evade 

 me, for here I could not trail him. I followed down the 



