ESTIMATING THE NUMBERS OF GAME. 105 



" Little (Mr. Van Dyke thinks) can be determined 

 from the examination of a small tract of ground," 

 when endeavouring to form an approximate estimate 

 of the numbers of game animals in a certain district 

 of country; for as he states 



u one deer, especially an old buck, in the fall, will often track 

 up two or three acres, or more; so that one would think 

 there had been a dozen deer there." "You must move on 

 then, over a considerable area of ground. And in so doing, 

 it is still more important to note the size and freshness of 

 the tracks and droppings. For the very same deer may have 

 marked several acres yesterday, and several different acres 

 the day before, until nearly 100 acres may be so marked, 

 that to the careless eye, it would look like the work of 50 

 deer." * 



Where a herd of deer, or other game, have been 

 playing themselves about over a tract of ground, there 

 is generally very distinct evidence of this in the tracks 

 overlying each other in places, and so partially 

 obliterating each other; and also in the footprints being 

 all of different sizes; and if there are several different 

 kinds of animals, they will be of different shapes, owing 

 to the different formation of their feet, so that a skilful 

 tracksman can not only tell the probable numbers of 

 animals present, but also their different species, with 

 very great accuracy. This of course, necessarily requires 

 high proficiency in the art of reading the signs of 

 the wilderness which however can be acquired literally, 

 as the late Mr. Francis Parkman has poetically expressed 

 it, much " as the scholar reads the printed page. " 



This peculiar gift is constantly found developed in 

 a very high degree among the savage races of mankind 



* The Still-Hunter, by Theodore S. Van Dyke, New York, 1888, p. 30. 



