160 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



grazing as he goes ; and he will often stay for some 

 little time longer, if there has been no disturbance 

 from man or other foes, feeding among the scat- 

 tered scrub cedars skirting the thicket in which he 

 intends to make his bed for the day. Having once 

 made his bed he crouches very close in it, and is 

 difficult to put up during the heat of the day; but 

 as the afternoon wears on he becomes more restless, 

 and will break from his bed and bound off at much 

 smaller provocation, while if the place is lonely he 

 will wander out into the open hours before sunset. 

 If, however, he is in much danger of being molested, 

 he will keep close to his hiding-place until nearly 

 nightfall, when he ventures out to feed. Owing 

 to the lateness of his evening appearance in locali- 

 ties where there is much hunting, it is a safer plan 

 to follow him in the early morning, being on the 

 ground and ready to start out by the time the first 

 streak of dawn appears. Often I have lost deer 

 when riding home in the evening, because the dusk 

 had deepened so that it was impossible to distin- 

 guish clearly enough to shoot. 



One day one of my cowboys and myself were 

 returning from an unsuccessful hunt, about night- 

 fall, and were still several miles from the river, 

 when a couple of yearling black-tails jumped up 

 in the bed of the dry creek down which we were 

 riding. Our horses though stout and swift were 

 not well trained; and the instant we were off their 

 backs they trotted off. No sooner were we on the 

 ground and trying to sight the deer, one of which 



