8 BIG GAME SHOOTING 
beasts are up and feeding, probably because that is the coldest 
time in the twenty-four hours ; the beasts become chilled and 
restless, and Nature warns them that food and motion are the 
best cures for the evils they are suffering from. 
Learn too, with the utmost care for yourself, upon which of 
its senses each particular beast relies, for all do not rely upon 
the same sense. The sense of smell is perhaps the most uni- 
versal safeguard of the beasts which men hunt, but all are not 
as keen of scent as the cariboo, nor all as wenderfully quick 
and long-sighted as the antelope, of whom Western men say that 
he can tell you what bullet your 1ifle is loaded with about as 
soon as you can make him out on the skyline. A bear is, so 
short-sighted as to be almost blind on occasion, and no beasts 
seem capable of quickly identifying objects which are stationary, 
though all catch the least movement in a second. This of 
course is where the man who rests often gets an advantage. If 
a beast is stationary in timber, for instance, you may often look 
at him for a minute after your Indian has found him before 
making him out ; but if he but flick his ear or turn a tine of his 
antler ever so little, it will catch your eye at once. 
In still hunting for wapiti or other timber-loving deer, a 
broken stick will warn every beast within a quarter of an hour’s 
tramp ; but on a mountain-side, where stones are constantly 
falling from the action of sun and wind and rain, ibex, sheep 
and other mountain beasts will often take but little or no notice 
of the stones you dislodge during your climb. Only be 
careful that these stones do not fall too often or at too regular 
intervals. 
In Scotland stalking is almost the only form of hunting 
deer ; in America and other wild countries there are two prin- 
cipal forms of sport—stalking and still hunting; the one prac- 
tised in comparatively open country and in the mountains, and 
the other in those dense forests where, partly from choice and 
partly because it has been much hunted, most of the big game 
now harbours. In this series stalking has already been dealt 
with, so that with this form it is only necessary to deal briefly 
