TO FIND GOOD HUNTING-GROUND. 23 



As a rule, good deer and antelope hunting must be 

 sought in pretty wild sections; and generally the wilder 

 they are the better. This rule, again, has its excep- 

 tions, and they must not be forgotten. Many tracts 

 of howling wilderness and many undisturbed and 

 splendid mountain-sides are almost entirely bare of 

 deer at all times, though all the conditions of good 

 deer-range exist. On the other hand, many a tract 

 that has been settled for years and contains two or 

 three or four settlers' cabins to the square mile will 

 often contain deer enough for excellent sport. It is 

 much the same with antelope; many a fine plain hav- 

 ing been bare of them within the memory of the old- 

 est Indians, others having a band or two that care 

 nothing for its settlements, except to keep just out of 

 shot, remaining on their old haunts until, one by one, 

 they fade away before the relentless rifle. 



Neither the deer nor the antelope can, however, be 

 called an admirer of civilization. Sometimes deer 

 will at once forsake a good-sized valley or timber 

 grove because a settler has moved into it, though this 

 is apt to be the case only when it is isolated from the 

 rest of the range. Antelope, too, will often cease to 

 run up a valley leading from the plain when settlers 

 have moved in, and this even though not hunted. 

 Both of them hate sheep and will generally desert 

 ground over which sheep range. But for cattle and 

 horses they care nothing ; in fact, rather seem to en- 

 joy their company at times, provided the herdsmen do 

 not come among them too often. But all such things 

 affect only parts of the range and have little to do in 

 determining its general character. 



