OF SHOOTING AND FISHING 57 
and examined these one after the other, for some 
distance, missing a very difficult cross shot at a 
fast running deer in one of them, then retracing 
my steps, about noon, I circled through a patch 
of timber on a steep hillside. This was the only 
dense grove of pines in the neighbourhood, and 
when I was in the middle of it, deer got up all 
around me, perhaps a dozen or more, but they were 
all does. Certainly this was a great day for deer, 
but bucks were scarce, and my shooting had been 
remarkably bad; however, it had been a most en- 
joyable morning and the afternoon was to come. 
After luncheon, I made my way back to the top 
of the first range I had climbed. It ran parallel 
with the road to Rifle and was very precipitous 
on the side next to the road. Tracks were scarce 
here, the deer had evidently not climbed the steep 
place, so I turned north once more into the gulch 
near which my horse was tied. All the draws on 
this hillside were now carefully searched but 
nothing was seen until late in the afternoon when, 
going down a narrow canyon, I caught sight of a 
buck and doe on the hillside far above me. The 
buck was a very large one, but the head was not 
heavy, although the spread was good. I fired at 
him several times before finding out my range. 
The shooting confused them both, and they ran 
backward and forward without attempting to go 
up or down. Presently my bullet hitting a dry 
place kicked up dust under the buck’s neck, and 
the next shot brought him down the hill, head over 
heels, until he lodged in a scrub-oak. This was 
