Hunting the Mule -Deer in Colorado. 263 



well to offer a fair equivalent — say five dollars — to the man who will 

 take you with him and let you shoot a buck of his finding. Go with 

 him, do just as he tells you, and you will get your first deer cheap ; 

 then, if you are keen and observant, probably, you will have learned 

 more than a whole season of painful work by yourself would have 

 amounted to, and your second deer will be yours without tribute. 



My own first experience in still hunting in Colorado may" be 

 taken as an instance of self-confident failure. I would not take a 

 guide. No, indeed ! Had I not been a mighty hunter from my 

 boyhood up ! 



So I waited for the first snow. I had passed the summer in the 

 foot-hills with a sketching kit on my back and a rifle in my hands, 

 and had been about equally occupied with the grand scenery and 

 with the dusky grouse and rabbits. Once I had surprised a band of 

 mountain sheep at a lick, by pure accident, and caused a fine old 

 buck to ascend some hundreds of feet of steep rocks with great 

 agility, the ball from my 36-caliber " rim-fire " only drawing a few 

 drops of blood. Anathematizing that gun as only a tyro can, I took 

 the first opportunity to exchange for a 50-caliber military rifle, with 

 which I expected to fill the next opening to better purpose. 



By and by the deer began to come down from the high feeding- 

 grounds, and over the passes from the parks, and gradually to work 

 south, " banded," and led by the old bucks, and making their way 

 to the warm and sheltered wintering-places south of Pike's Peak. 

 This migratory habit is observed wherever the high and rough nature 

 of the country affords a secure summer retreat, but is too barren and 

 storm-exposed for a winter habitat. Sometimes the hunters would 

 break up and scatter one of these bands, and in twos and threes they 

 would remain and infest the rough country for a time, until joined to 

 a new leadership, and thus, timid and on the alert, they were much 

 oftener seen than secured ; the region back of Boulder being pecul- 

 iarly hard hunting-ground, hilly and broken, and giving the keen- 

 eyed and keen-nosed animals a great advantage. One November 

 morning, at three o'clock, bound to be early, and, if hard and con- 

 scientious work might avail, to carry a trophy into camp that day, I 

 was trudging cheerfully up Boulder Canon through the new-fallen 

 snow. Before the dawn began to follow up the morning star, I had 

 climbed a slide in a crevice, some hundreds of feet, and shivered for 



