A FAT BUCK. 137 



require to be hunted with, if possible, more caution than do 

 deer. And we knew not the moment when we might 

 come upon our game, as it was highly probable they were 

 close at hand; for turkeys, if unmolested, daily frequent 

 the same range of feeding-ground until it is exhausted of 

 food. By-and-by I came to where eight of the straggling 

 birds had corne together, and started off again in company. 

 The drove had evidently separated into two or more lots, 

 and I followed the eight turkeys for many miles and 

 many hours without seeing fresh sign, until at length I 

 came to the edge of a precipitous cliff overlooking a wide 

 part of the valley, the river flowing just below me, and a 

 large grove of big cotton-wood trees in a bottom not far 

 away. Evidently I was at the place from which the 

 turkeys had flown off the night before to go to roost. I 

 quickly descended, and going under the cotton-wood-trees, 

 searched in the tangle and jungle for sign of their 

 having roosted above, and soon satisfied myself that they 

 had done so. The next step necessary was to discover 

 where the turkeys had alighted in the morning, but this 

 might entail a long search, and as it was already past 

 noon, I sat down to rest, eat the luncheon I had provided 

 myself with, and come to some conclusion as to which 

 direction I had best choose to make my first cast in. 



I had not proceeded far on my way again, when I came 

 suddenly upon "sign" that arrested my attention, and 

 raised hope in my breast the tracks of a big fat buck ! 

 He had crossed the river-bottom diagonally, and his trail 

 plainly told me all about him ; the great width of, and the 

 distance between his tracks, proclaimed his sex and size, 



