OF A RANCHMAN 269 



they have been in the place recently or not. 

 Generally, signs of deer are infinitely more 

 plentiful than the animals themselves al- 

 though in regions where tracking is es- 

 pecially difficult deer are often jumped with- 

 out any sign having been seen at all. Usu- 

 ally, however, the rule is the reverse, and as 

 deer are likely to make any quantity of tracks 

 the beginner is apt, judging purely from the 

 sign, greatly to over-estimate their number. 

 Another mistake of the beginner is to look 

 for the deer during the daytime in the places 

 where their tracks were made in the morn- 

 ing, when their day beds will probably be 

 a long distance off. In the night-time deer 

 will lie down almost anywhere, but during 

 the day they go some distance from their 

 feeding- or watering-places, as already ex- 

 plained. 



If deer are at all plenty and if scarce only 

 a master in the art can succeed at still-hunt- 

 ing it is best not to try to follow the tracks 

 at all, but merely to hunt carefully through 

 any ground which from its looks seems likely 



