144 THE DEER FAMILY 



yet without catching the faintest glimpse of a tleer until 

 the evening of the eleventh day, and then it was so far 

 away that I was at first in doubt about it. There are 

 fools among the wildest animals, and the more one 

 hunts deer the more apt one is to feel a painful suspi- 

 cion that the greater part of success comes from stum- 

 bling over a fool. Nothing much worse can befall the 

 tenderfoot at first, for he is apt to feel himself a born 

 hunter and learn little more. But such was not my 

 fortune, and I became so interested that that hunt 

 lasted several months and was repeated every fall until 

 I moved to California. 



" Most beginners have much the same experience in 

 still-hunting, and it arises mainly from the difficulty of 

 comprehending — in practical form — the extreme acute- 

 ness of the senses of a deer and the constant watch the 

 animal keeps on man, even in the wildest woods." 



The above describes a hunt years ago in Wisconsin, 

 when the woods were full of white-tails, and Mr. Van 

 Dyke says he has never since seen so many tracks, 

 though he has been in many an almost untrodden wild. 



Much has been written about the chase of the white- 

 tail deer. The lesson cannot be learned from books. 

 The best school is that held by the camp-tire in the 

 woods. The best teacher is the guide or woodsman 

 who lives in the same forest with the deer and who 

 knows, if anyone does, how to circumvent them.* 



June 4, 1904, I read the proof of this chapter at the 

 South Side Sportsman's Club on Long Island. While 

 fishing, a short distance above the club-house, I saw a 



* It will be a matter of satisfaction to all sportsmen to know that the sta- 

 tistics show a steady increase in the number of deer in the State forests. No 



