The Black-Tail Deer 189 



We were at that time making quite a long trip 

 with the wagon, and were going up the fork of a 

 plains river in western Montana. As we were out 

 of food, those two of our number who usually un- 

 dertook to keep the camp supplied with game deter- 

 mined to make a hunt off back of the river after 

 black-tail; for though there were some white-tail 

 in the more densely timbered river bottoms, we had 

 been unable to get any. It was arranged that the 

 wagon should go on a few miles, and then halt for 

 the night, as it was already the middle of the after- 

 noon when we started out. The country resembled 

 in character other parts of the cattle plains, but it 

 was absolutely bare of trees except along the bed 

 of the river. The rolling hills sloped steeply off 

 into long valleys and deep ravines. They were 

 sparsely covered with coarse grass, and also with an 

 irregular growth of tall sage-brush, which in some 

 places gathered into dense thickets. A beginner 

 would have thought the country entirely too barren 

 of cover to hold deer, but a very little experience 

 teaches one that deer will be found in thickets of 

 such short and sparse growth that it seems as if they 

 could hide nothing ; and, what is more, that they will 

 often skulk round in such thickets without being dis- 

 covered. And a black-tail is a bold, free animal, lik- 

 ing to go out in comparatively open country, where 

 he must trust to his own powers, and not to any con- 

 cealment, to protect him from danger. 



Where the hilly country joined the alluvial river 

 bottom, it broke off into steep bluffs, up which none 



