8 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



beasts are up and feeding, probably because that is the coldest 

 time in the twenty-four hours ; the beasts become chilled and 

 restless, and Nature warns them that food and motion are the 

 best cures for the evils they are suffering from. 



Learn too, with the utmost care for yourself, upon which of 

 its senses each particular beast relies, for all do not rely upon 

 the same sense. The sense of smell is perhaps the most uni- 

 versal safeguard of the beasts which men hunt, but all are not 

 as keen of scent as the cariboo, nor all as wonderfully quick 

 and long-sighted as the antelope, of whom Western men say that 

 he can tell you what bullet your rifle is loaded with about as 

 soon as you can make him out on the skyline. A bear is so 

 short-sighted as to be almost blind on occasion, and no beasts 

 seem capable of quickly identifying objects which are stationary, 

 though all catch the least movement in a second. This ot 

 course is where the man who rests often gets an advantage. It 

 a beast is stationary in timber, for instance, you may often look 

 at him for a minute after your Indian has found him before 

 making him out ; but if he but flick his ear or turn a tine of his 

 antler ever so little, it will catch your eye at once. 



In still hunting for wapiti or other timber-loving deer, a 

 broken stick will warn every beast within a quarter of an hour's 

 tramp ; but on a mountain-side, where stones are constantly 

 falling from the action of sun and wind and rain, ibex, sheep 

 and other mountain beasts will often take but little or no notice 

 of the stones you dislodge during your climb. Only be 

 careful that these stones do not fall too often or at too regular 

 intervals. 



In Scotland stalking is almost the only form of hunting 

 deer ; in America and other wild countries there are two prin- 

 cipal forms of sport stalking and still hunting; the one prac- 

 tised in comparatively open country and in the mountains, and 

 the other in those dense forests where, partly from choice and 

 partly because it has been much hunted, most of the big game 

 now harbours. In this series stalking has already been dealt 

 with, so that with this form it is only necessary to deal briefly 



