276 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



they kill and examine the animals themselves, or receive their 

 information from some competent authority; but as there is 

 no work, thus far, that describes the mammals of the United 

 States they must, if they have had no experience, depend on 

 a local naturalist for their facts. 



Having- made the acquaintance of the true black-tail on the 

 shores of the Pacific, and having 1 never seen it east of the 

 Sierra Nevada and Cascade Ranges, in California, Oregon, or 

 Washing-ton Territory, I was rather surprised to hear of it in 

 Utah, Wyoming 1 , Montana, and Colorado, but on killing- the 

 species called by that name, I found it to be the true C. 

 macro/is. 



The black-tailed deer receives its technical name from the 

 Columbia River, and very justly I should infer, for it is found 

 in greater numbers along the wooded portions of that stream 

 than in any other part of the Pacific Coast. It is a true 

 denizen of the woods, its favourite haunts being amid the 

 deepest and dampest recesses of those gigantic forests of firs 

 and spruces which extend for hundreds of miles along the 

 shores of the Northern Pacific Ocean. 



It ranks next to the mule deer in size, being much larger, 

 fleeter, and heavier in frame than its eastern congener, the 

 Virginia deer. I have known some full-grown stags to attain 

 a weight of over 250 pounds, but the does are, of course, much 

 lighter. I would also feel inclined to assert that it has few among 

 its kindred that can excel it in running and jumping, for I have 

 seen it clear a corral wall ten or twelve feet high, and I have 

 often been astonished at the ease with which it bounded over 

 fallen trees and their high, bare branches. I made some notes 

 of leaps which I have seen it make, but as they have been lost 

 I can only speak from memory; and, depending on that alone, 

 I would say that it can clear a fourteen-feet wall or fence. 



It is not so highly prized, from a gastronomic point of view, 

 in the Far West as the mule deer, as its flesh is less succulent 

 and more fibry. It is, however, in my estimation, equal to 

 any of its European congeners, and when it is not. injured by 

 hard running, any epicure might gloat over a haunch of its 

 flesh and have lew criticisms to make on its daintiness. Some 



