32 The Wilderness Hunter. 



but do not kill does until a month later and then only 

 when short of meat. In the early weeks of the deer sea- 

 son we frequently do even the actual hunting on horse- 

 back instead 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. Under such circumstances 

 bucks sometimes lie until almost trodden on. 



One afternoon in mid-August, when the ranch was 

 entirely out of meat, I started with one of my cow-hands, 

 Merrifield, to kill a deer. We were on a couple of stout, 

 quiet ponies, accustomed to firing and to packing game. 

 After riding a mile or two down the bottoms we left the 

 river and struck off up a winding valley, which led back 

 among the hills. In a short while we were in a blacktail 

 country, and began to keep a sharp lookout for game, 

 riding parallel "to, but some little distance from, one 

 another. The sun, beating down through the clear air, 

 was very hot ; the brown slopes of short grass, and still 

 more the white clay walls of the Bad Lands, threw the 

 heat rays in our faces. We skirted closely all likely-look- 

 ing spots, such as the heavy brush-patches in the bottoms 

 of the winding valleys, and the groves of ash and elm in 

 the basins and pockets flanking the high plateaus ; some- 

 times we followed a cattle trail which ran down the mid- 

 dle of a big washout, and again we rode along the brink 

 of a deep cedar canyon. After a while we came to a 



