48 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



The weather was stormy and there were con- 

 tinual gusts of wind and of cold rain, sleet, or 

 snow. We hunted through a large tract of 

 rough and broken country, six or eight miles 

 from the ranch. As often happens in such 

 wild weather the deer were wild too ; they 

 were watchful and were on the move all the 

 time. We saw a number, but either they ran 

 ofif before we could get a shot, or if we did 

 fire it was at such a distance or under such 

 unfavorable circumstances that we missed. 

 At last, as we were plodding drearily up a 

 bare valley, the sodden mud caking round our 

 shoes, we roused three deer from the mouth 

 of a short washout but a few paces from us. 

 Two bounded off : the third by mistake 

 rushed into the washout, where he found him- 

 self in a regular trap and was promptly shot 

 by my companion. We slung the carcass on 

 a pole and carried it down to where we had 

 left the horses; and then we loped home- 

 wards, bending to the cold slanting rain. 



Although in places where it is much per- 

 secuted the blacktail is a shy and wary beast, 

 the successful pursuit of which taxes to the 

 uttermost the skill and energy of the hunter, 

 yet, like the elk, if little molested it often 

 shows astonishing tameness and even stupid- 

 ity. In the Rockies I have sometimes come 

 on blacktail within a very short distance, 

 which would merely stare at me, then trot off 

 a few yards, turn and stare again, and wait 

 for several minutes before really taking alarm. 

 What is much more extraordinary I have had 

 the same thing happen to me in certain little 

 hunted localities in the neighborhood of my 



