LOOKING FOR DEER LYING DOWN. 79 



briers and young brush. But wherever we see the 

 bare ground distinctly there are signs of deer. See 

 that smooth oval depression in the ground on the 

 sunny side of those great upturned roots of a pine. 

 A deer lay there yesterday; and if he has not been dis- 

 turbed it is not at all unlikely that he is here now. 



Hark! Did your ear catch that faint crack of brush 

 about a hundred yards off ? No. Yet dull and un- 

 trained, your ear did not notice it. And if it had no- 

 ticed it, it would doubtless have taken it for a squirrel 

 or a bird. 



We reach the other side of the windfall without 

 seeing anything. Let us, however, take a circuit 

 around the edge and see if anything has gone out. 

 What is that mark on the ground about twenty yards 

 ahead ? Some leaves are upturned. They look moist 

 on one side. The dirt, too, is dark, damp, and soft, 

 and shows plainly the imprint of four feet that have 

 come plunging into it from above. Look back over 

 this log and see if you do not find some more tracks 

 there. 



You find them readily. And several feet farther 

 back toward the main body of the windfall you find 

 more. 



Well, we have "jumped " a deer at last. Let us try 

 another and see if we cannot get at least a view of 

 him as he jumps. 



Do you see those brushy ridges with the ends point- 

 ing this way, some two hundred yards away, just vis- 

 ible in the distance ? The backs and points of those 

 are worth examining when deer are so plenty as they 

 now are here. Make a wide circuit to the left so 

 as to reach the backbone of the first ridge a hun- 

 dred and fifty yards or more from its point. Then go 



