68 The Wilderness Hunter 



dawn, in spite of the mosquitoes, but saw nothing; 

 and the chances we did get we failed to profit by. 



One morning, instead of trudging out to hunt I 

 stayed at home, and sat in a rocking-chair on the 

 veranda reading, rocking, or just sitting still listen- 

 ing to the low rustling of the cottonwood branches 

 overhead, and gazing across the river. Through 

 the still, clear, hot air, the faces of the bluffs shone 

 dazzling white; no shadow fell from the cloudless 

 sky on the grassy slopes, or on the groves of timber ; 

 only the faraway cooing of a mourning-dove broke 

 the silence. Suddenly my attention was arrested 

 by a slight splashing in the water ; glancing up from 

 my book I saw three deer, which had come out of 

 the thick fringe of bushes and young trees across 

 the river, and were strolling along the sand-bars di- 

 rectly opposite me. Slipping stealthily into the house 

 I picked up my rifle, and slipped back again. One 

 of the deer was standing motionless, broadside to 

 me ; it was a long shot, two hundred and fifty yards, 

 but I had a rest against a pillar of the veranda. I 

 held true, and as the smoke cleared away the deer 

 lay struggling on the sands. 



As the whitetail is the most common and widely 

 distributed of American game, so the Columbian 

 blacktail has the most sharply limited geographical 

 range; for it is confined to the northwest coast, 

 where it is by far the most abundant deer. In ant- 



