The Black-Tail Deer 183 



Our luck, however, seemed very deservedly to 

 have ended. We tramped on, as swiftly as was com- 

 patible with quiet, for hour after hour; beating 

 through the valleys against the wind, and crossing 

 the brushy heads of the ravines, sometimes close to- 

 gether, and sometimes keeping about a hundred 

 yards apart, according to the nature of the ground. 

 When we had searched all through the country 

 round the head of the creek, into which we had come 

 down, we walked over to the next, and went over 

 it with equal care and patience. The morning was 

 now well advanced, and we had to change our meth- 

 od of hunting. It was no longer likely that we 

 should find the deer feeding or in the open, and in- 

 stead we looked for places where they might be ex- 

 pected to bed, following any trails that led into 

 thick patches of brush or young trees, one of us then 

 hunting through the patch while the other kept 

 watch without. Doubtless we must have passed 

 close to more than one deer, and doubtless others 

 heard us and skulked off through the thick cover; 

 but, although we saw plenty of signs, we saw neither 

 hoof nor hair of living thing. It is under such 

 circumstances that a still-hunter needs to show res- 

 olution, and to persevere until his luck turns this 

 being a euphemistic way of saying, until he ceases 

 to commit the various blunders which alarm the 

 deer and make them get out of the way. Plenty of 

 good shots become disgusted if they do not see a 

 deer early in the morning, and go home ; still more, 

 if they do not see one in two or three days. Others 



