THE MULE-DEER lOi 



the morning-call had been sounded, I often found the 

 mule-deer quite near the camp. This was in 1880, and 

 the Northern Pacific Railway then ended at Bismarck, 

 Dakota, so that we were several hundred miles west of 

 the track, and in a land where Sitting Bull was still at 

 large. Buffalo were abundant on the plains of the 

 Yellowstone, and we killed some but a short distance 

 from the garrison, as we set out on our hunt. White- 

 tail deer and antelope were also plentiful, and easy to 

 procure, and sage-cocks and sharp-tailed grouse were 

 as plentiful in the grass and sage as the blue grouse 

 were in the mountains. The streams were full of trout 

 of large size, which responded obligingly to almost any 

 lure. With a bit of flannel or a few grasshoppers it 

 was an easy matter to take all the trout we could use 

 in a very short time. 



We always counted on finding the mule-deer in the 

 hills, where there were groves of trees — pines, wild 

 plum-trees, and others. He seemed to prefer these 

 park-like places, part open and part grove. In the 

 morning we came upon the deer when they were feed- 

 ing, and later in the day, riding ahead of the command 

 with an orderly, I often jumped them lying down in 

 the grove, or at the edge of a thicket. Upon one 

 occasion, my orderly, riding a few paces in the rear, 

 shouted to me to look at the deer. I of course looked 

 the wrong way, and meantime three splendid mule- 

 dccr, which had jumped on our right, passed back of 

 me but ahead of the soldier, and made off for the brushy 

 hill-side. 1 sent a ball after them when I finally dis- 

 covered where they were, which had no other effect 

 than to hurry them. 



