STILL-HUNTING ON OPEN GROUND. 161 



for one who has arrived at that period of life when he 

 discovers that work is not an indispensable ingredient 

 of the pleasure of hunting, is in often being able to 

 hunt a vast number of acres with the eye while the 

 body is in a state of blissful repose upon some sunny 

 rock or shady point; the spirits meanwhile being kept 

 in a state of elegant tranquillity by the reflection that 

 just at hand is a saddle for which to exchange that 

 rock when you wish to move on. 



On the whole, it may be said that the open ground 

 is generally the best for the lazy hunter and the bung- 

 ler, and out of an equal number of deer to the square 

 mile much the best for success. On the other hand, 

 the woods give scope to the greater skill and care, 

 and give a deeper satisfaction to him who values game 

 more for the skill required to bag it than as a thing to 

 eat or boast of. 



On this kind of ground you will be very apt to be 

 the victim of a new trick. In the woods you found 

 that evanescence was the invariable rule of action 

 with all deer as soon as they discovered you. But 

 you will now meet a deer that will hide or skulk 

 silently away in brush quite as often perhaps as he 

 will try to avoid you by running. All kinds of deer 

 when inhabiting very dense cover learn, as nearly all 

 wild animals do, that skulking out of sight is just as 

 effective as running, and much cheaper. The reason we 

 have so far seen no skulking deer was that in woods 

 open enough for successful still-hunting there is not 

 enough thick cover to hide a deer from a man only 

 a few yards off. But on such open ground as is 

 worth hunting there is generally considerable of such 

 cover, and in many places you cannot get high enough 

 above it to see down into it. This cover a deer knows 



