A COLORADO SKETCH 41 



Many hunters seem to think that the deer cannot see 

 them till they see the deer. 



The sportsman cannot go too slowly, and it is 

 better to hunt out one little gully thoroughly than 

 to cover miles of ground in the day. If he walks 

 rapidly he will scare heaps of deer, hear lots of crash- 

 ing in the trees and scattering of stones, and per- 

 haps see the whisk of a white tail, or the glance of a 

 dark form, through the trees, but never get a shot 

 for his pains. We pursued a different plan — took 

 each little gulch separately, and carefully crept up 

 it, searching every inch of ground, usmg redoubled 

 caution towards the end where the bush is thickest, 

 and especially scanning the north side ; for, strange 

 to say, deer prefer lying on the north side of valleys 

 in the snow, even during the coldest weather, to 

 resting on the warm sunny grass on the southern 

 slopes. Patiently we worked ; but our patience 

 was not well rewarded, for not a sign of anything 

 did we see till our entirely foodless stomachs and 

 the nearly shadowless trees indicated that it was 

 past noon. So we sat us down in a nice little 

 sheltered nook, from whence we commanded a good 

 view of the precipitous cliffs and gullies that led 

 down to the tortuous and icebound creek, some 

 thousands of feet below us, as well as of the face of 



