222 HUNTING TRIPS 



there is usually much more time for aiming. 

 Moreover, one kind of sport can be followed 

 on horseback, while the other must be fol- 

 lowed on foot; and then the chase of the 

 white-tail, in addition, is by far the more 

 tedious and patience-trying. And the black- 

 tail are much the more easily scared or 

 driven out of a locality by persecution or by 

 the encroaching settlements. All these 

 qualities combine to make it less able to 

 hold its own against mankind than its 

 smaller rival. It is the favorite game of the 

 skin hunters and meat hunters, and has, in 

 consequence, already disappeared from 

 many places, while in others its extermina- 

 tion is going on at a frightfully rapid rate, 

 owing to its being followed in season and 

 out of season without mercy. Besides, the cat- 

 tle are very fond of just the places to which 

 it most often resorts; and wherever cattle 

 go the cowboys ride about after them, with 

 their ready six-shooters at their hips. They 

 blaze away at any deer they see, of course, 

 and in addition to now and then killing or 



