THE MULE DEEK. 165 



swept, as by a besom, of their countless Bison, in the face 

 of law, and of the higher and sacred law stamped on all 

 animate nature. I have lived to see the Elk driven from 

 the Mississippi to the most remote and loneliest recesses of 

 the mountains, and only saved in the Yellowstone Park by 

 the United States Army ! Of all civilized nations, we are 

 the slowest to enact laws when our persons and pockets 

 are not concerned. Of all civilized nations, we are the 

 weakest to execute the laws we do make, when still our own 

 persons or pockets are not touched. Our game laws are a 

 mere empty form, and their execution is a farce ! 



Now, to return to the stiffened jumps and gait of the 

 Mule Deer. That whole canon-side, for five hundred feet 

 down, was a steep slope of volcanic debris and sliding shale. 

 To go down was a slide; to go up was a climb; and this 

 answers fairly, as I have said before, for the face of the 

 whole country. Can we not see that the stiffened jump of 

 a Sheep or a Goat, that sets the feet firmly at every bound, 

 is better for our Deer than the long, swinging leap that 

 regards surface merely, and would leave the animal to con- 

 stant slipping and many a fall \ 



The next morning I was to have a picture again, and one 

 which time and years do not efface. I was out early, at 

 daylight; but a mile and a half along our canon had brought 

 no scent to my gentle companion, and so no need to look 

 down into the deep, dark gulf which the daylight had not 

 yet reached. The sun had just risen above the horizon, full, 

 round, and red, and seemed three times his natural size, in 

 the morning mist which yet hung over mountain and valley. 

 I had come to a knoll, or mound, some ten or fifteen feet 

 high, over the very brow of which the sun appeared as I 

 have described, when right across the great, red disc stepped 

 the form of a noble buck, and stopped. Had I had a 

 camera, I should have been in doubt whether it was a case 

 for the rifle or the camera. His noble antlers and upraised 

 head and neck cleared the disc, but his shoulders were 

 directly across it, and it showed bright and clear above and 

 below his body, behind his shoulders. It was wonderful, 



