44 The Wilderness Hunter 



one of the most attractive of hardy outdoor sports. 

 Then after the long, stumbling walk homeward, 

 through the cool gloom of the late evening, comes 

 the meal of smoking venison and milk and bread, 

 and the sleepy rest, lying on the deer-skins, or sit- 

 ting in the rocking chair before the roaring fire, 

 while the icy wind moans outside. 



Earlier in the season, while the does are still nurs- 

 ing the fawns, and until the bucks have cleaned the 

 last vestiges of velvet from their antlers, the deer lie 

 very close, and wander round as little as may be. 

 In the spring and early summer, in the ranch coun- 

 try, we hunt big game very little, and then only ante- 

 lope ; because in hunting antelope there is no danger 

 of killing aught but bucks. About the first of Au- 

 gust we begin to hunt blacktail, but do not kill does 

 until a month later and then only when short of 

 meat. In the early weeks of the deer season we fre- 

 quently do even the actual hunting on horseback in- 

 stead of on foot ; because the deer at this time rarely 

 appear in view, so as to afford chance for a stalk, 

 and yet are reluctant to break cover until very closely 

 approached. In consequence we keep on our horses, 

 and so get over much more ground than on foot, 

 beating through or beside all likely-looking cover, 

 with the object of jumping the deer close by. Un- 

 der such circumstances bucks sometimes lie until al- 

 most trodden on. 



One afternoon in mid-August, when the ranch was 



