272 HUNTING TRIPS 



ing, are still in the velvet; and neither does 

 nor fawns should be killed, as many of the 

 latter are in the spotted coat. Besides it is 

 very hot in the middle of the day, though 

 pleasant walking in the early morning and 

 late evening, and with cool nights. Decem- 

 ber is apt to be too cold, although with 

 many fine days. The true time for the chase 

 of the black-tail is in the three fall months. 

 Then the air is fresh and bracing, and a man 

 feels as if he could walk or ride all day long 

 without tiring. In the bright fall weather 

 the country no longer keeps its ordinary look 

 of parched desolation, and the landscape 

 loses its sameness at the touch of the frost. 

 Where everything before had been gray or 

 dull green there are now patches of russet 

 red and bright yellow. The clumps of ash, 

 wild plum-trees, and rose-bushes in the heads 

 and bottoms of the sloping valleys become 

 spots of color that glow among the stretches 

 of brown and withered grass ; the young cot- 

 ton-woods, growing on the points of land 

 round which flow the rivers and streams, 



