178 GAME. 



stop and look around for the cause. This is the sports- 

 man's opportunity, and nine -tenths of the black- tails 

 bagged are killed in that pause. If not fired at or if 

 missed during that pause, and he starts again, no further 

 effort need be made to bag that deer, for, after fully 

 satisfying himself what the danger is, he never stops until 

 safe in the thickest cover which is known to him. 



Once in a while they seem to become almost paralysed 

 with curiosity, and will stand staring until several shots 

 have been fired. I have had frequent experience of this. 

 Once a friend and myself came suddenly on a herd in a 

 dense, dark cedar thicket. They broke up the side of a 

 steep hill or rather mountain stopped and stared until 

 we had dropped two in ' their tracks ' and mortally 

 wounded three more. 



On the 16th of August 1875 I came within long shot of 

 a herd of four^as fine bucks as I ever saw and knocked 

 down all. Three I bagged ; but the fourth, though mortally 

 wounded, hid in a thicket and was lost. On this occasion, 

 and the only time in my life, I bagged two noble bucks 

 with one rifle-ball. 



If there be no convenient canon for his noonday 

 siesta, the black-tail betakes himself for his nap to some 

 ridge or point surrounded by cedars as dense as possible. 

 This is my favourite stalk ; and when the ground is soft 

 enough to show the tracks, and the wind is right, I always 

 consider such a deer as ' my meat.' A trail leading to 

 such a thicket being found, it should be followed with the 

 greatest caution if the wind will permit. If the wind 

 should be unfavourable a careful survey of the thicket 

 must be taken, and a detour made sufficiently wide to be 

 sure of bringing the sportsman to leeward of the game. 

 The difficulty of this approach is that the thicket may be 

 so extensive that the sportsman may be obliged to trust to 

 chance. He may pass within a few feet of the crouched 

 animal, give him the wind, and lose him. This cannot 

 occur if he has the trail. All at once a scramble and a 



