216 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



ranch hounds, usually of the old black-and-tan Southern 

 type, and then if we needed meat, and there was not time 

 for a hunt back in the hills, we would turn out and hunt 

 one or two of the river bottoms with these hounds. If 

 I rode off to the prairies or the hills I went alone, but 

 if the quarry was a whitetail, our chance of success de- 

 pended upon our having a sufficient number of guns to 

 watch the different passes and runways. Accordingly, 

 my own share of the chase was usually limited to the 

 fun of listening to the hounds, and of galloping at head- 

 long speed from one point where I thought the deer 

 would not pass to some other, which, as a matter of fact, 

 it did not pass either. The redeeming feature of the 

 situation was that if I did get a shot, I almost always got 

 my deer. Under ordinary circumstances to merely 

 wound a deer is worse than not hitting it; but when there 

 are hounds along they are certain to bring the wounded 

 animal to bay, and so on these hunts we usually got 

 venison. 



Of course, I occasionally got a whitetail when I 

 was alone, whether with the hounds or without them. 

 There were whitetail on the very bottom on which the 

 ranch house stood, as well as on the bottom opposite, 

 and on those to the right and left up and down stream. 

 Occasionally I have taken the hounds out alone, and 

 then as they chevied the whitetail around the bottom, 

 have endeavored by rapid running on foot or on horse- 

 back to get to some place from which I could obtain 

 a shot. The deer knew perfectly well that the hounds 

 could not overtake them, and they would usually do a 



