PREFACE 19 



it is heart-breaking work. Where you find the blacktail you 

 will find other pleasures, for he delights in the most charming 

 bits of country to be found. He will jump up from the tall 

 weeds and grass among the aspens, so close as to startle you as 

 you ride through them, or will leap into view from the shade 

 of a deep washout far in the desert, where he finds in the feed 

 and surroundings something to suit his taste. He is crafty, 

 also ; for if he thinks he is hidden I have known him to lie in 

 thick brush until almost kicked out, after all sorts of expedients 

 to drive him out had failed. He has, perhaps, the keenest 

 scent and the best hearing of all the deer tribe, although an 

 elk matches him very closely. He cannot see as well as the 

 antelope, for I have stood within ten or twenty feet of several 

 passing bands which failed to distinguish me from a stump or 

 rock. Antelope will approach very closely, occasionally, out 

 of pure inquisitiveness, but never a deer. If anything moves, 

 a deer sees it instantly, but he cannot tell what a still object is, 

 and the elk and bighorn are the same. I have exposed myself 

 with impunity to bighorn where antelope would have laughed 

 me to scorn. The antelope is, without doubt, the most active 

 of the four game animals under discussion. I have seen them, 

 when chasing each other at full speed, turn instantly in the re- 

 verse direction, without any check or curve. 



To Mr. William Wells is due the credit for planning the 

 mountain-lion, wildcat, and bear hunts, and selecting many of 

 the views of this volume. The manner of hunting them is 

 with foxhounds specially trained for the purpose. They must 



