THE STILL-HUNTER'S CARDINAL VIRTUE. 213 



is of little use to hunt the ridges or the scattered 

 bushes during the time deer are lying down, as the 

 acreage of such stuff is uncomfortably disproportion- 

 ate to the number of deer. The only way to do is to 

 hunt along the edges of the gullies and around the 

 heads of little side gullies and pockets, etc., and de- 

 pend upon jumping those that lie down in such stuff. 

 If it be very thick they may skulk or slip away down 

 the bottom of the gully, leaving you amused only with 

 the gay gallopade of their retiring hoofs. But, as a rule, 

 they will spring out on one side and roll away over 

 the open slope to the next ridge, or run down the op- 

 posite outside edge of the gully, thus presenting a 

 fine chance for a running shot. 



Whether deer are plenty enough on such ground to 

 hunt may be soon determined by inspection of the 

 ground along the edges and around the heads of 

 gullies, also the ground lying between the heads of 

 opposite running gullies and the ridges, points, and 

 gullies leading to springs, if water be scarce. Tracks 

 and droppings will be found on all such ground if 

 deer are plenty enough to bother with. 



Patience is no less essential in antelope-stalking 

 than in deer-stalking. A little impatience to know 

 whether antelope are coming to the red flag will often 

 spoil a shot. So when they are feeding along on a 

 certain course and you get around and get ahead of 

 them it will be nearly impossible to resist raising your 

 head too often to see how near they are. And when 

 they come slowly it will be very hard to wait instead of 

 trying to get closer. 



