330 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST, 



in the dense forests of the North-west is the number that 

 escape after being mortally wounded, as they seek shelter 

 in the heaviest shrubbery, where it is almost impossible to 

 find them, let one be even Argus-eyed. This is specially 

 true in stalking or still-hunting, for a deer will often carry 

 away a large quantity of lead before it falls. I have known 

 one to be shot in the heart and run a long distance ere it 

 fell, and another to escape for good although its fore-shoul- 

 der was broken. This was killed a year later, and when 

 skinned it was found that the leg was as stiff as a bone, 

 while the flesh had become as hard as leather, owing to the 

 paralysis of the muscles. Shots in the abdomen and ribs 

 are not likely to bring it down promptly, and I knew one 

 to receive a load of buckshot in the neck and escape. I 

 have, on the contrary, seen one tumbled over with a buck- 

 shot that struck it in the root of the tail, or in the fore- 

 head, and I have killed one myself with a charge of No. 6 

 shot. 



To hunt the black-tail with any degree of success, per- 

 sons must resort to a dense part of the forest; and if the 

 country is hilly, so much the better is the opportunity for 

 sport, for the animal seems partial to a somewhat rugged 

 habitat. It roams to an altitude of three or four thousand 

 feet in summer, but late in the autumn it descends to the 

 lowlands ; and in the Far North-west it is fond of frequent- 

 ing the regions near the Pacific Ocean, to enjoy the thermal 

 currents of air that flow toward the interior from the Sea 

 of Japan. Hundreds of deer and wapitis may then be 

 found close to the shore, and if a person is any kind of a 

 shot he may kill many of them by exercising ordinary pre- 

 cautions. 



The white-tailed deer (Cariacus leucurus: Gray) is not 

 so much attached to the forest depths as the preceding, 

 for its favorite habitat seems to be glades or the coppices 

 which skirt the borders of small prairies. It is not so large 

 or so swift as its black-tailed congener, and many persons 

 consider it to be inferior in flesh. This animal, which 

 seems to be a variety of the Virginia deer the difference 



