io BIG GAME SHOOTING 



distance from himself, you will have time to get round and make 

 a successful stalk. Even the hinds will be too intent on watch- 

 ing the other men to keep a proper look-out in your direction. 

 And this brings up another point. Take care of the hinds and 

 of those lean grey-faced ewes. The ram and the stag are 

 blunderers and reckless, especially in love-time ; but the ewes 

 are as suspicious and wary as schoolmistresses, and must always 

 be watched carefully. If for a moment you see the grey faces 

 turn in your direction, keep still ; keep still as a statue, even 

 though you have raised yourself upon your hands to peer over 

 and have found out too late that your palms are pressing upon 

 the thorny sides of a bunch of prickly pears. It will come to 

 an end at last, though that fixed regard seems never ending ; but 

 in any case, if you want a shot you must be still, for if you try 

 to lower your head and hide whilst they are looking at you, 

 you might just as well go home. This rule applies in another 

 instance. If you should by chance come upon a beast un- 

 awares, stand stock still at once ; don't try to hide if it is a deer ; 

 don't try to bolt if it is something more dangerous. If you 

 stand still, beasts are slow to identify objects, and your deer 

 may not be badly scared or your bear may pass on with only 

 a suspicious stare ; but if you attempt to hide, your deer will 

 certainly show you his paces over fallen timber, or your bear 

 or tiger if bad tempered may charge. 



But you ought very seldom to run into beasts in this way, if 

 you keep your eyes open for ' sign,' i.e. tracks, droppings, freshly 

 broken twigs, and places where deer have been browsing, and 

 if, as you ought to, you take a good long time to scan every 

 valley carefully before you enter it. Of course you must not 

 keep your eyes on the ground looking for tracks this is a fatal 

 trick of a ' tender foot ' but you can see tracks well enough with 

 eyes looking well ahead of you ; and indeed, if you are following 

 a trail, you will find it more easily by looking for it yards ahead 

 of you than you will by searching for it at your feet. 



Again, in looking for game you have at first to learn what 

 to look for. The deer you are likely to see will not be stand- 



