A DAY IN THE TABLE-LANDS. 181 



yourself over the edge, or give a snort or bleat like a 

 deer, or even a low whistle. A middling loud " Phew !" 

 or " Mah !" is the best, as it is more apt to make a deer 

 get up and look instead of running at once. 



Five or six of these side gulches are passed without 

 seeing anything, and we reach the head of the main 

 valley. Now let us wind carefully round the head of 

 it and see if they have gone out, for they may have 

 been going to another valley. A careful inspection 

 shows no tracks. The ground is hard and dry, but 

 in most places a track could be seen. Moreover, they 

 would have been almost sure to travel this well-beaten 

 cattle-trail that leads directly out of the head of the 

 valley. They are probably in the valley; and now look 

 out sharp for tracks when we get into it, but keep a 

 good watch ahead. Make an inspection of the ground 

 at the mouth of every side gulch or valley on the side 

 opposite the one we came up. 



About two hundred yards below the head of the 

 valley your eye catches a slight scrape on the dry 

 ground. You notice it only by its shade of color, 

 but it is an unmistakable scrape. Just beyond it are 

 two or three more, and in one of them the points of a 

 hoof have raised a faint rim of dry dirt. And, see, 

 they lead, too, right toward a side gulch of consider- 

 able length which terminates some two hundred yards 

 up in a pocket. Follow them a little further, so as to 

 be sure they lead in there, and then back out and swing 

 around over the hill to the head of it; for you see the 

 wind draws in there too. The valley here is not over 

 a hundred and fifty feet deep, so that climbing the 

 hill is soon over, and in a few minutes you are peering 

 over into the pocket. But all is still. You show a little 

 more of your head and shoulders, but nothing moves. 



