174 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman 



occur to any one to suspect their presence. Any 

 cause may temporarily drive deer out of a given lo- 

 cality. Still-hunting, especially, is sure to send many 

 away, while rendering the others extremely wild 

 and shy, and where deer have become used to being 

 pursued in only one way, it is often an excellent plan 

 to try some entirely different method. 



A certain knowledge of how to track deer is very 

 useful. To become a really skilful tracker is most 

 difficult ; and there are some kinds of ground, where, 

 for instance, it is very hard and dry, or frozen solid, 

 on which almost any man will be at fault. But any 

 one with a little practice can learn to do a certain 

 amount of tracking. On snow, of course, it is very 

 easy; but, on the other hand, it is also peculiarly 

 difficult to avoid being seen by the deer when the 

 ground is white. After deer have been frightened 

 once or twice, or have even merely been disturbed by 

 man, they get the habit of keeping a watch back on 

 their trail ; and when snow has fallen, a man is such 

 a conspicuous object deer see him a long way off, 

 and even the tamest become wild. A deer will often, 

 before lying down, take a half circle back to one side 

 and make its bed a few yards from its trail, where 

 it can, itself unseen, watch any person tracing it up. 

 A man tracking in snow needs to pay very little heed 

 to the footprints, which can be followed without 

 effort, but requires to keep up the closest scrutiny 

 over the ground ahead of him, and on either side of 

 the trail. 



In the early morning when there is a heavy dew 



