274 Hunting the Mule -Deer in Colorado. 



less prowlers, long and lithe, slip from shadow to shadow ; the coyote 

 yelps complainingly in the distance, and a camp-fire is twinkling 

 away down by the dim river. 



So long as he knows he is unobserved, — and your old buck is 

 as shrewd - as a man in judging of this, — he stands and eyes the 

 hunter with the coolest curiosity. The moment the approach is 

 direct, changing from oblique., or the hunter conceals himself, or 

 halts and crouches, that moment "old smarty " runs away. The 

 gun should be at the shoulder when the hunter halts to shoot, 

 or there is no time. Often he will lie and lazily watch the 

 approaching enemy, as, gun in hand, he labors along through fallen 

 wood and rocks, and after perhaps a half hour's enjoyment of the 

 game of hide-and-seek, the search getting a little too warm, he 

 will at one jump from his lair, clear a huge rock or log and dis- 

 appear, his feet leaving the exact imprints in which they have rested 

 perhaps for hours. Frequently, the only evidence the hunter has 

 of his vicinity is the break-neck clatter and crash, sudden as an 

 avalanche, in which the alarmed animal seeks safety and at the 

 same time warns all of his fellows. The best plan then is for the 

 hunter to take another tack, in doing which he may possibly find 

 his game doubling upon him, particularly if he strike for higher 

 ground. 



Don't continually try your gun at a mark. It scares the hunters 

 and the game. "What a nice spot to shoot at!" or, "See if I can't 

 hit that tree 'way over there," says Tenderfoot, and presently some 

 startled mountaineer yells out, " Here ! who the future condition of 

 misery are you a-shootin'?" which is an awkward query when pro- 

 pounded by an ugly-looking man with a navy armament in his belt. 

 You might hit him after honestly missing a deer or a bear, and he 

 wouldn't blame you so much ; but he detests this aimless fusilade 

 which only drives away the game. He suspects, too, that this waster 

 of ammunition will have poor success; for a "dead shot," even, at a 

 target may be a muff in the game country. 



Try to be cool enough to mark whether your ball strikes over or 

 under when you miss a shot with a hill-side background. After 

 awhile you will instinctively measure distances and elevate accord- 

 ingly. Whatever theoretical sportsmen may say, you can just as 

 well estimate a scale to elevate to as the distance of your object, and 



