Hunting from the Ranch. 33 



coulie with a small muddy pool at its mouth ; and round 

 this pool there was much fresh deer sign. The coulie 

 was but half a mile long, heading into and flanked by the 

 spurs of some steep, bare hills. Its bottom, which was 

 fifty yards or so across, was choked by a dense growth of 

 brush, chiefly thorny bullberries, while the sides were 

 formed by cut banks twelve or fifteen feet high. My 

 companion rode up the middle, while I scrambled up one 

 of the banks, and, dismounting, led my horse along its 

 edge, that I might have a clear shot at whatever we 

 roused. We went nearly to the head, and then the cow- 

 boy reined up and shouted to me that he "guessed there 

 were no deer in the coulie." Instantly there was a smash- 

 ing in the young trees midway between us, and I caught 

 a glimpse of a blacktail buck speeding round a shoulder 

 of the cut bank ; and though I took a hurried shot I 

 missed. However, another buck promptly jumped up 

 from the same place ; evidently the two had lain secure 

 in their day-beds, shielded by the dense cover, while the 

 cowboy rode by them, and had only risen when he halted 

 and began to call to me across them. This second buck, 

 a fine fellow with big antlers not yet clear of velvet, 

 luckily ran up the opposite bank and I got a fair shot at 

 him as he galloped broadside to me along the open hill- 

 side. When I fired he rolled over with a broken back. 

 As we came up he bleated loudly, an unusual thing for a 

 buck to do. 



Now these two bucks must have heard us coming, but 

 reckoned on our passing them by without seeing them ; 

 which we would have done had they not been startled 



