Io BIG GAME SHOOTING 
distance from himself, you will have time to get round and make 
a successful stalk. Even the hinds will be too intent on watch- 
ing the other men to keep a proper look-out in your direction. 
And this brings up another point. ‘Take care of the hinds and 
of those lean grey-faced ewes. The ram and the stag are 
blunderers and reckless, especially in love-time ; but the ewes 
are as suspicious and wary as schoolmistresses, and must always 
be watched carefully. If for a moment you see the grey faces 
turn in your direction, eep s#i7/; keep still asa statue, even 
though you have raised yourself upon your hands to peer over 
and have found out too late that your palms are pressing upon 
the thorny sides ofa bunch of prickly pears. It will come to 
an end at last, though that fixed regard seems never ending ; but 
in any case, if you want a shot you mwst be still, for if you try 
to lower your head and hide whilst they are looking at you, 
you might just as well go home. ‘This rule applies in another 
instance. If you should by chance come upon a beast un- 
awares, stand stock stillat once ; don’t try to hide if it is a deer ; 
don’t try to bolt if it is something more dangerous. If you 
stand still, beasts are slow to identify objects, and your deer 
may not be badly scared or your bear may pass on with only 
a suspicious stare ; but if you attempt to hide, your deer will 
certainly show you his paces over fallen timber, or your bear 
or tiger if bad tempered may charge. 
But you ought very seldom to run into beasts in this way, if 
you keep your eyes open for ‘sign,’ i.e. tracks, droppings, freshly 
broken twigs, and places where deer have been browsing, and 
if, as you ought to, you take a good long time to scan every 
valley carefully before you enter it. Of course you must not 
keep your eyes on the ground looking for tracks—this is a fatal 
trick of a ‘tender foot ’—but you can see tracks well enough with 
eyes looking well ahead of you ; and indeed, if you are following 
a trail, you will find it more easily by looking for it yards ahead 
of you than you will by searching for it at your feet. 
Again, in looking for game you have at first to learn what 
to look for. The deer you are likely to see will not be stand- 
