78 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



offered a much more puzzling stalk. He was 

 a big fellow in company with four does or 

 small bucks. All five were lying in the mid- 

 dle of a slight basin, at the head of a gentle 

 valley. At first sight it seemed impossible to 

 get near them, for there was not so much 

 cover as a sage brush, and the smooth, shal- 

 low basin in which they lay was over a thou- 

 sand yards across, while they were looking 

 directly down the valley. However, it is 

 curious how hard it is to tell, even from near- 

 by, whether a stalk can or cannot be made ; 

 the difficulty being to estimate the exact 

 amount of shelter yielded by little inequali- 

 ties of ground. In this instance a small 

 shallow watercourse, entirely dry, ran along 

 the valley, and after much study I decided to 

 try to crawl up it, although the big bulging 

 telescopic eyes of the prong-buck which 

 have much keener sight than deer or any 

 other game would in such case be pointed 

 directly my way. 



Having made up my mind I backed cau- 

 tiously down from the coign of vantage 

 whence I had first seen the game, and ran 

 about a mile to the mouth of a washout 

 which formed the continuation of the water- 

 course in question. Protected by the high 

 clay banks of this washout I was able to walk 

 upright until within half a mile of the prong- 

 bucks ; then my progress became very tedious 

 and toilsome, as I had to work my way up 

 the watercourse flat on my stomach, dragging 

 the rifle beside me. At last I reached a spot 

 beyond which not even a snake could crawl 

 unnoticed. In front was a low bank, a couple 



