298 PASSING THE NIGHT ON MOUNTAIN TOPS. 



deer or other game, on scenting him, move off down 

 the wind upon the hunter who is waiting for them. * 

 American Indians and other hardy hunters often obtain 

 good success by passing the night on the mountain 

 tops, during summer, and watching the edges of bushy 

 tracts at daybreak, where they know the mountain 

 game are apt to go to feed soon after dawn; at 

 which hour game is generally less suspicious and 

 more easily approached than at any other time. 



The advantages of this course are well summarized 

 in the Handbook of Big Game Shooting of the Bad- 

 minton Library: 



" By sleeping at the top of your ground, or near it (says 

 the Editor) you avoid the necessity of rising at midnight; 

 you are sure of being at your look-out station in time; you 

 can examine several faces of the range at once, and choose 

 that upon which you see game in the most approachable 

 position; you begin your day's work fairly fresh, instead of 

 being dead-beat by a stiff climb before dawn; and you get 

 a chance of stalking your game from the only point from 

 which it can be stalked, with any reasonable hope of suc- 

 cess." f 



It is also pointed out by the same authority that 

 the man who adopts this plan need not necessarily 

 undergo severe hardships from the intensity of the 

 cold: furs or waterproofs, over good wraps, affording 

 very complete protection, always used by hunters in 

 North America during the winter months. The 

 editor of Big Game Shooting advises a sleeping bag, 



* The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Colonel Richard 

 I. Dodge, U.S.A., 1877, p. 177. 



f Big Game Shooting. Badminton Library. Edited by C. Phil- 

 lipps Wolley, 1894, Vol. ii., p. 58. (Chapter on the " Mountain Game 

 of the Caucasus.") 



