284 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



broad, white dorsal band extended from the ears to the tail. 

 This seemed to belong- to the blaek-tailed species, as the eauda 

 was black above and white and black beneath. 



A snow-white deer is also found on Whidby Island, and 

 high up on several of the mountain ranges. This is also said 

 to keep its hue permanently, and to herd together in groups 

 varying from five to a dozen or more. A man in Washington 

 Territory had four of them abotit his house for three or four 

 years, and he reports that they never changed their colour, 

 except that the white seemed to brighten in winter. This 

 variety is said to be new to the country, and Indians report 

 that it was not known until a short time previous to the advent 

 of the white man. "When first discovered by the Indian hunters 

 they were astonished, and refused to kill it, thinking it was 

 the wandering spirit of some man or woman transformed into a 

 deer for transgressions committed while on earth, and many 

 of them even now hold the same opinion, and would not injure 

 it on any account. When the medicine men and prophets 

 heard of the new animal they began their incantations to learn 

 what it signified, and some of them deduced therefrom, that a 

 white race of men would soon appear, and that, like the white 

 deer, they would be cautious, vigilant, and hard to kill, and 

 would finally prevail by numerical superiority. This legend 

 is distributed among several tribes in the North-west, so it 

 would seem that it has been in existence for many years. The 

 creature, for all that, is rather scarce, and has by no means kept 

 pace with the increase of the race of men to whom the red 

 prophets have allied it. It is more abundant in the Siskiyou 

 Mountains, which separate Oregon and California, and in the 

 Cascade Range than in any other portions of the country, its 

 favourite haunts being the higher plateaus of these chains. 

 Very little is known of its habits, but they, apparently, do not 

 differ from those of the other deer. 



The Virginia deer, the typical species of the Atlantic States, 

 is abundant in some portions of the AVest and South-west, and 

 large numbers are killed annually bv Indians, market and pot- 

 hunters, and sportsmen. These are stalked, hunted witli 

 hounds, or shot from stages erected near the trails they make 



