The Black-Tail Deer 175 



the footprints will be as plain as possible in the grass, 

 and can then be followed readily; and in any place 

 where the ground is at all damp they will usually 

 be plain enough to be made out without difficulty. 

 When the ground is hard or dry the work is very 

 much less easy, and soon becomes so difficult as 

 not to be worth while following up. Indeed, at all 

 times, even in the snow, tracks are chiefly of use 

 to show the probable locality in which a deer may 

 be found ; and the still-hunter instead of laboriously 

 walking along a trail will do far better to merely 

 follow it until, from its freshness and direction, he 

 feels confident that the deer is in some particular 

 space of ground, and then hunt through it, guiding 

 himself by his knowledge of the deer's habits and 

 by the character of the land. Tracks are of most 

 use in showing whether deer are plenty or scarce, 

 whether they have been in the place recently or not. 

 Generally, signs of deer are infinitely more plentiful 

 than the animals themselves although in regions 

 where tracking is especially difficult deer are often 

 jumped without any sign having been seen at all. 

 Usually, however, the rule is the reverse, and as deer 

 are likely to make any quantity of tracks the begin- 

 ner is apt, judging purely from the sign, greatly to 

 overestimate their number. Another mistake of the 

 beginner is to look for the deer during the daytime 

 in the places where their tracks were made in the 

 morning, when their day beds will probably be a long 

 distance off. In the night-time deer will lie down 

 almost anywhere, but during the day they go some 



