58 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



CHAPTER VI. 



LOOKING FOR DEER THAT ARE ON FOOT. 



SINCE it is generally sq hard to catch sight of a deer 

 until it is just too late to shoot, and since lying down 

 is a position in which it is generally next to impossible 

 to see one at all, it follows that far brighter prospects 

 of success lie on the side of finding a deer on foot. 

 So much is this the case that in many kinds of ground 

 it is almost useless to try to get a shot at one in any 

 other way. Such is the case where deer are keeping 

 in heavy swamps, canebrake, tule, chapparal, or other 

 stuff that is too high and too dense to afford a fair 

 shot at one when running. There your only chance 

 of success is to find them on foot along the edges, or 

 from some piece of rising ground see them moving or 

 standing in the covert. You may in such kinds of 

 ground find enough eminences to give you some fair 

 running shots at deer started below you; but such is 

 not generally the case. 



And now we are about ready to take the field. But 

 let us first see whether the day will do for still-hunt- 

 ing. For, recollect, there are some days when you 

 might almost as well stay at home. Such are the 

 still, warm days of autumn, when you can hear a 

 squirrel scamper over the dead leaves a hundred 

 yards away; 



" When not a breath creeps through the rosy air, 

 And yet the forest leaves seem stirred with prayer." 



