1 66 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



over it once or twice without recognizing its real 

 nature. In the brush it is still more difficult, and 

 there a deer's form is often absolutely indistinguish- 

 able from the surroundings, as one peers through 

 the mass of interlacing limbs and twigs. Once an 

 old hunter and myself in walking along the ridge 

 of a scoria butte passed by without seeing them, 

 three black-tail lying among the scattered bowlders 

 of volcanic rock on the hillside, not fifty yards from 

 us. After a little practical experience a would-be 

 hunter learns not to expect deer always, or even gen- 

 erally, to appear as they do when near by or sud- 

 denly startled; but on the contrary to keep a sharp 

 look-out on every dull-looking red or yellow patch 

 he sees in a thicket, and to closely examine any 

 grayish-looking object observed on the hillsides, for 

 it is just such small patches or obscure-looking ob- 

 jects which are apt, if incautiously approached, to 

 suddenly take to themselves legs, and go bounding 

 off at a rate which takes them out of danger before 

 the astonished tyro has really waked up to the fact 

 that they are deer. The first lesson to be learned 

 in still-hunting is the knowledge of how to tell what 

 objects are and what are not deer; and to learn it 

 is by no means as easy a task as those who have 

 never tried it would think. 



When he has learned to see a deer, the novice 

 then has to learn to hit it, and this again is not the 

 easy feat it seems. That he can do well with a 

 shotgun proves very little as to a man's skill with 

 the rifle, for the latter carries but one bullet, and can 



