78 The Wilderness Hunter 



very numbers, joined to the lack of cover on such 

 an open, flattish country, proved a bar to success; 

 while I was stalking one band another was sure to 

 see me and begin running, whereat the first would 

 likewise start ; I missed one or two very long shots, 

 and noon found me still without game. 



However, I was then lucky enough to see a band 

 of a dozen feeding to windward of a small butte, 

 and by galloping in a long circle I got within a 

 quarter of a mile of them before having to dismount. 

 The stalk itself was almost too easy; for I simply 

 walked to the butte, climbed carefully up a slope 

 where the soil was firm and peered over the top to 

 see the herd, a little one, a hundred yards off. They 

 saw me at once and ran, but I held well ahead of a 

 fine young prong-buck, and rolled him over like a 

 rabbit, with both shoulders broken. In a few min- 

 utes I was riding onward once more with the buck 

 lashed behind my saddle. 



The next one I got, a couple of hours later, of- 

 fered a much more puzzling stalk. He was a big 

 fellow in company with four does or small bucks. 

 All five were lying in the middle of a slight basin, 

 at the head of a gentle valley. At first sight it 

 seemed impossible to get near them, for there was 

 not so much cover as a sage brush, and the smooth, 

 shallow basin in which they lay was over a thou- 

 sand yards across, while they were looking directly 

 down the valley. However, it is curious how hard 



