HUNTING ON SNOW. 133 



Now what was the use in keeping your eyes so 

 much upon the track ? Can you not tell well enough 

 about where it is going to be able to go at least fifty 

 yards without looking at it ? And if you must look 

 at it, can you not do so with an occasional side glance 

 of the eye that does not take your attention from 

 anything beyond ? And where the necessity of tread- 

 ing so constantly in the tracks ? And what was the 

 use in going into that basin at all ? Could you not 

 just as well have wound around it out of sight behind 

 this ridge to the right? And by so doing could you 

 not have found out whether the buck passed out of 

 the basin, and just where he left it, quite as surely 

 as you could have done by having both eyes and feet 

 half the time in his tracks ? Had you done this he 

 would not have seen you so soon; and when he did 

 see you, you would have had a good running shot at 

 him. 



Turn off now to one side and keep down along the 

 edge of the " slash/' and see if any more deer have 

 come from the timber to lie down in here. 



A few moments' walk brings you to the trail of two 

 yearlings. These you follow for quarter of a mile 

 into the "slash," using all your care, skill, eyesight, 

 and caution about noise, moving not over half a mile 

 an hour, working each foot toe first through the snow 

 so as to feel any possible stick or brush that may 

 crack beneath it, easing off any twig that could possibly 

 scratch on your clothes, and looking, looking, looking 

 oh so keenly! You reap at last a common reward of 

 honest, patient toil a sight of two sets of long plung- 

 ing jumps leading away fro ni two fresh warm beds. 

 The sun smiles sweetly as ever down through the 

 bracing air ; the lonely pines are as dignified and sol- 



