STEEP TRAILS 



Deer give beautiful animation to the forests, 

 harmonizing finely in their color and move- 

 ments with the gray and brown shafts of the 

 trees and the swaying of the branches as they 

 stand in groups at rest, or move gracefully 

 and noiselessly over the mossy ground about 

 the edges of beaver-meadows and flowery 

 glades, daintily culling the leaves and tips of 

 the mints and aromatic bushes on which they 

 feed. There are three species, the black-tailed, 

 white-tailed, and mule deer; the last being 

 restricted in its range to the open woods and 

 plains to the eastward of the Cascades. They 

 are nowhere very numerous now, killing for 

 food, for hides, or for mere wanton sport, hav- 

 ing well-nigh exterminated them in the more 

 accessible regions, while elsewhere they are 

 too often at the mercy of the wolves. 



Gliding about in their shady forest homes, 

 keeping well out of sight, there is a multitude 

 of sleek fur-clad animals living and enjoying 

 their clean, beautiful lives. How beautiful 

 and interesting they are is about as difficult 

 for busy mortals to find out as if their homes 

 were beyond sight hi the sky. Hence the 

 stories of every wild hunter and trapper are 

 eagerly listened to as being possibly true, or 

 partly so, however thickly clothed in succes- 

 sive folds of exaggeration and fancy. Unsatis- 



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