IN THE FAR WEST. 247 



CHAPTER X. 



THE MULE DEER. 



The mule deer Its haunts and habits General characteristics Origin 

 of name Weight, size, and appearance Why it is called the jumping 

 deer Fire hunting Herding of bucks Hunting with hounds Stalk- 

 ing Migrations of the animal Large numbers killed by hunters 

 A hunt in the Bitter Root Mountains Wailing of squaws A visit 

 to an Indian cemetery Disappearance of the mourners A retreat 

 Wolves Sit up all night Fear of Indians A visit from them in the 

 morning Our preparations for their reception Mutual recognition 

 The trapper's story Visit the Indian camp The pipe of peace 

 Speeches A buffalo dance Revisit the burial-ground Mode of bury- 

 ing the dead Mourning songs of squaws Change camp Number 

 of deer captured, and how we bagged them Wolves attacking a stag 

 Death of five of them Change quarters Hunting does and fawns 

 Why these keep to the foot-hills Our success with them Another 

 visit to the Indian camp An aged couple deserted How Indians treat 

 old people Their fate. 



THE mule deer (Cariacus mac rot is : Gray) is a denizen of the 

 vast area lying between the Bad Lands of Dakota and Ne- 

 braska and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges. It is 

 virtually the deer of the mountains and plateaus, as its con- 

 geners are of the forest and lowlands, for it is seldom found on 

 the plains, unless they are closely surrounded by rugged hills 

 or steep mountains, and even then only rarely, for the lowest 

 points to which it seems to descend voluntarily are the foot- 

 hills that jut out from the main ranges. Its favourite haunts 

 are near the summits of mountains having an altitude of from 

 one to five thousand feet, and there, free from many foes, it 

 leads a life of comparative ease and security. It always seeks 

 shelter in the timber during the day, but in the morning and 

 evening it frequents the more open grounds near the moun- 

 tain crests to graze on the tender and dainty grass that ig 

 nurtured during the spring and summer by the melting snow 



