i 3 4 HUNTING TRIPS 



the timbered ravines and the dense woods 

 and underbrush of the river bottoms, the up- 

 per branches of the trees being their favorite 

 resting-places. On very cold mornings, 

 when they are feeling numb and chilled, a 

 man can sometimes get very close up to 

 them, but as a rule they are very wild, and 

 the few I have killed at this season of the 

 year have been shot with the rifle, either from 

 a tree or when standing out on the bare hill- 

 sides, at a considerable distance. They offer 

 very pretty marks for target practice with 

 the rifle, and it needs a good shot to hit one 

 at eighty or a hundred yards. 



But though the shot-gun is generally of 

 no use late in the season, yet last December 

 I had a good afternoon's sport with it. 

 There was a light snow falling, and having 

 been in the house all the morning, I de- 

 termined to take a stroll out in the afternoon 

 with the shot-gun. A couple of miles from 

 the house was a cedar canyon; that is, a 

 canyon one of whose sides was densely 

 wooded with gnarled, stunted evergreens. 



