THE WHITETAIL DEER 209 



does not need to display the extraordinary power of 

 stealthy advance which is necessary to the man who would 

 creep up to and kill a whitetail in thick timber. Now, 

 the qualities of hardihood and endurance are better than 

 the quality of stealth, and though all three are necessary 

 in both kinds of chase, yet it is the chase of the mule- 

 deer which most develops the former, and the chase of 

 the whitetail which most develops the latter. When the 

 woods are bare and there is some snow on the ground, 

 however, still hunting the whitetail becomes not only 

 possible, but a singularly manly and attractive kind of 

 sport. Where the whitetail can be followed with horse 

 and hound, the sport is also of a very high order. To 

 be able to ride through woods and over rough country 

 at full speed, rifle or shotgun in hand, and then to leap 

 off and shoot at a running object, is to show that one has 

 the qualities which made the cavalry of Forrest so for- 

 midable in the Civil War. There could be no better 

 training for the mounted rifleman, the most efficient type 

 of modern soldier. 



By far the easiest way to kill the whitetail is in one 

 or other of certain methods which entail very little work 

 or skill on the part of the hunter. The most noxious 

 of these, crusting in the deep snows, has already been 

 spoken of. No sportsman worthy of the name would 

 ever follow so butcherly a method. Fire hunting must 

 also normally be ruled out. It is always mere murder 

 if carried on by a man who sits up at a lick, and is not 

 much better where the hunter walks through the fields 

 not to mention the fact that on such a walk he is quite 



