220 HUNTING TRIPS 



ably good hunter and game shot, and an- 

 other does almost as well; but the rest of 

 us are not, and never will be, any thing very 

 much out of the common. By dint of prac- 

 tice we have learned to shoot as well at game 

 as at a target ; and those of us who are fond 

 of the sport hunt continually and so get a 

 good deal of game at one time or another. 

 Hunting through good localities, up wind, 

 quietly and perseveringly, we come upon 

 quite a number of animals ; and we can kill 

 a standing shot at a fair distance and a run- 

 ning shot close up, and by good luck every 

 now and then kill far off ; but to much more 

 than is implied in the description of such 

 modest feats we cannot pretend. 



After the disappearance of the buffalo 

 and the thinning out of the elk, the black- 

 tail was, and in most places it still is, the 

 game most sought after by the hunters; I 

 have myself shot as many of them as of all 

 other kinds of plains game put together. 

 But for this very reason it is fast disappear- 

 ing; and bids fair to be the next animal, 



