106 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



upon snow; though one mortally wounded may run 

 half a mile or more without showing it even upon 

 snow. On one occasion I found a stale and bloody 

 trail of a deer in snow one afternoon with no hunter's 

 track upon it. I soon tracked it up, and found the deer 

 dead with a bullet-hole through the neck. As the hole 

 corresponded in size with the ball I was then using, 

 and as the deer looked like one I had shot at that 

 morning, I concluded to follow the trail back to where 

 it was shot. Nearly half a mile back from there I 

 came to the place where I had given up the trail in 

 the morning. I had followed it about a quarter of a 

 mile, and it was nearly one third of a mile to where 

 blood first began to spot the snow. Many deer are 

 lost by neglecting a thorough examination of this 

 kind, especially when they are shot with rifles of such 

 small caliber as those in which the American heart 

 most delights. 



You spend another hour upon the ridges without 

 seeing anything but the tracks of some more plung- 

 ing jumps of deer that you have started unseen. As 

 this is a difficulty that you can never entirely over- 

 come, you need not feel very bad about it. No matter 

 how carefully one may hunt, or how keen one's sight 

 may be, a deer will often escape in this way, even 

 when one has the aid of snow to tell nearly where 

 the deer is. The advantage which a deer is often sure 

 to have in being at rest while you are moving, in being 

 on ground where it is impossible for you to walk 

 quietly, in being at one of those turning-points in 

 your course where you must walk down wind for a 

 while, or in being in one of those eddies or cross- 

 currents that carry your scent where you least expect 



