THE WHITETAIL DEER 195 



These bottoms may be a mile or two across, or they may 

 shrink to but a few score yards. After the extermination 

 of the wapiti, which roamed everywhere, the only big 

 game animal found in them was the whitetail deer. 

 Beyond this level alluvial bottom the ground changes 

 abruptly to bare, rugged hills or fantastically carved and 

 shaped Bad Lands rising on either side of the river, the 

 ravines, coulees, creeks, and canyons twisting through 

 them in every direction. Here there are patches of ash, 

 cedar, pine, and occasionally other trees, but the country 

 is very rugged, and the cover very scanty. This is the 

 home of the mule-deer, and, in the roughest and wildest 

 parts, of the bighorn. The absolutely clear and sharply 

 defined line of demarkation between this rough, hilly 

 country, flanking the river, and the alluvial river bottom, 

 serves as an equally clearly marked line of demarkation 

 between the ranges of the whitetail and the mule-deer. 

 This belt of broken country may be only a few hundred 

 yards in width; or it may extend for a score of miles 

 before it changes into the open prairies, the high plains 

 proper. As soon as these are reached, the prongbuck's 

 domain begins. 



As the plains country is passed, and the vast stretches 

 of mountainous region entered, the river bottoms become 

 narrower, and the plains on which the prongbuck is found 

 become of very limited extent, shrinking to high valleys 

 and plateaus, while the mass of rugged foothills and 

 mountains add immensely to the area of the mule-deer's 

 habitat. 



Given equal areas of country, of the three different 



