332 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



too numerous, and to do more harm than good. " If I had 

 my way," said a pioneer to me, " I'd pizen the whole pesky 

 lot of 'em in this deestrict, for my heart is broke tryin' to 

 keep 'em away from my young crops of wheat and veg- 

 etables. It's no use tryin' to kill 'em off, for them thar 

 women deer have two or three kids at a time, and the 

 youngsters are jest as bad as their mothers in a couple o' 

 months after they're born ; and as for them bucks, I think 

 they're the most tarnal impident critters that ever lived. 

 Why, one of 'em charged my little gal when she went to 

 drive him and his mate away ; and but for the dog runniu' 

 up to her, he might a hurt her." 



This man did not have any feelings about the enthusi- 

 asm of the chase, and he looked upon a deer more as a 

 nuisance than as a game animal. He thought a sheep was 

 of far more use than the antlered beauty, and that its flesh 

 was also more palatable; and he supposed that one deer 

 would eat as much as two sheep. He had discovered that 

 the former would not graze wherever the droppings of the 

 latter were found, and that it would assuredly leave any 

 region over which sheep roamed; so he drove his flock 

 through the woods in various directions, and made a cir- 

 cuit with them for several hundred yards about his small 

 farm ; and he found after awhile that the deer, much to 

 his satisfaction, deserted the immediate neighborhood, and 

 let his crops grow without attempting to molest them. I 

 have heard of other forest ranchers who adopted the same 

 method of protecting their gardens, and they found it 

 successful. This antipathy between deer and sheep is so 

 strong that the former will even avoid salt licks and sul- 

 phur springs, of which they seem madly fond, if the latter 

 graze about them or leave their droppings near them. 



Hunters who are in the vicinity of these springs or 

 "licks" kill more deer than they could elsewhere, as the 

 animals frequent them both morning and evening, and 

 revel in the dainties they afford. If a person is well con- 

 cealed, and to the leeward, he may slay many a fine buck 

 or graceful doe during the evening or early morning near 



