56 CAMP FIRE REMINISCENCES 
previous two nights. It was curious that although 
I had seen about fifty deer, only four or five were 
bucks. 
Starting north I carefully beat a number of 
draws, going cautiously from one over to another, 
but my shooting had probably driven everything 
off, so I decided to leave the horse where he was, 
cross the creek, climb through the wood and see 
what was beyond, toward the west. I followed the 
stream, which had only an inch of water, some 
distance south and at last found a little gully, so 
proceeded up it. Almost at once I came across 
the perfectly fresh tracks of a large puma. Fol- 
lowing these carefully, and scanning every likely 
ridge of rocks or limb of tree, I reached a place 
where the timber had disappeared on my right and 
quaking asp had taken its place. Almost at the 
top, but among the aspens, I saw five deer look- 
ing at me. One was a buck and the distance was 
about one hundred and fifty yards. Leaning the 
rifle on a branch to make absolutely sure of my 
shot, I fired and the deer instantly bounded out of 
sight over the top. What had happened? How 
could I have missed? I had shot large numbers 
of animals and had missed few shots like this. 
Climbing up among the aspens, I searched where 
the beast had been, but there was no blood on the 
snow to suggest a hit and that was the end of it. 
I followed the puma tracks until I reached the 
top of this range of hills and as the snow had been 
blown from there, I lost them. Again, I found 
a series of draws running down towards the west, 
