280 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



over with a buckshot that struck it in the root of the tail, or 

 in the forehead, and I have killed one myself with a charge of 

 No. G shot. 



To hunt the black-tail with any degree of success, persons 

 must resort to a dense part of the forest, and if the country is 

 hilly, so much the better is the opportunity for sport, for the 

 animal seems partial to a somewhat rugged habitat. It roams 

 to an altitude of three or four thousand feet in summer, but 

 late in the autumn it descends to the lowlands, and in the far 

 North-west it is fond of frequenting the regions near the Pacific 

 Ocean to enjoy the thermal currents of air that flow towards 

 the interior from the Sea of Japan. Hundreds of deer and 

 wapitis may then be found close to the shore, and if a person 

 is any kind of a shot he may kill many of them by exercising 

 ordinary precautions. 



The white-tailed deer (Cariacus leucurus: Gray) is not so much 

 attached to the forest depths as the preceding, for its favourite 

 halilat seems to be glades or the coppices which skirt the borders 

 of small prairies. It is not so large nor so swift as its black-tailed 

 congener, and many persons consider it to be inferior in flesh. 

 This animal, which seems to be a variety of the Virginia deer, 

 the difference between them being very slight, is known as 

 the long-tailed, the white-tailed, and the valley deer. Its 

 range on the Pacific slope extends from the Rocky Mountains 

 to the ocean. In the interior basins lying between the 

 Cascade and Sierra Nevada Ranges and the above mountains, 

 it is distributed geographically over the same area as the mule 

 deer; but west of the Sierra Nevadas the latter is compara- 

 tively scarce, while the other is abundant. It has, in fact, the 

 same range over the Far West that the Virginia deer has in 

 the East, and the habits of both are almost identical. 



AVhen pursued with hounds it docs not head for the hills, 

 and double and twist, as its black-tailed congener does, but 

 dashes straight for rivers or lakes, let them be even several 

 miles distant. It alwavs follows one of the numerous trails 

 which leads to its watering-places ; and should it be checked 

 on its route, it will sometimes turn back and run until it is 

 caught by the hounds. Its jumps are shorter and quicker 



