THE STILL-HUNTER'S CARDINAL VIRTUE. 209 



low stalks of the white sage. In a moment he dis- 

 appears without regarding the noise of your rifle. 



The buck started from behind the very bush at 

 which you first saw him. Five or ten minutes' pa- 

 tient waiting would have given him time to move 

 around the bush, to shake its top leaves by browsing 

 or to move to another bush. And if you had had pa- 

 tience to back out and go along the ridge some three 

 hundred yards either way, you might have located 

 him precisely, and might then have returned and 

 waited behind the ridge for him to move out in sight. 



In this way a large number of shots are lost even 

 by hunters who kill a great deal of game. Too hasty 

 marking of a deer's location, too hasty assumption 

 that the deer has moved away because it cannot at 

 once be seen when the detour is completed, are two 

 of the most irretrievable mistakes that any one but an 

 excellent shot at running game can make in hunting 

 open ground. And even in the woods it is often 

 made, though of course not so often as in open 

 ground, as deer are never seen so far away in the 

 woods as they generally are in the open. 



Well, there is another one, and you raise your rifle at 

 once. 



Beware! beware! It is indeed only two hundred 

 yards away. But that is a long, long shot for even 

 the best of shots to make at a deer standing breast 

 toward you with more than half his body hidden in 

 that gray sage. You will find that mark extremely 

 dim when seen through the sights of a rifle. Let me 

 tell you right here to beware always how you shoot 

 with the rifle at a mark when bedim med or nearly ob- 

 scured by brush. Never do it far off if you have any 

 fair prospects of getting closer. Never do it even 



