226 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



where this kind of approaching can be done with any 

 fair chance of success and by taking advantage of 

 that fact you may with quickness cut down the dis- 

 tance to seventy-five yards before he starts. Down, 

 then, with your head if you can, and run directly 

 toward him. If you cannot hide your head drop 

 your hat, or you might as well drop it in either case. 

 But run, run, run as fast as you can, and never mind 

 necessary noise, but make none needlessly. You will 

 often lose a shot this way, but you will more often get 

 a better one than you could have had from where you 

 first saw the head. In the same way you may charge 

 on deer with a horse. 



You have already seen that if you walk too fast you 

 will make too much noise, will not have time to look 

 as closely and carefully as you should do, and that 

 your quick motions will catch a deer's sight more 

 quickly than if moving slowly. But there are other 

 cases besides that above given where it may be ex- 

 pedient to walk very fast. Suppose, for instance, the 

 ground is in such condition from crusty snow or dry 

 leaves or other cause that you must make a noise in 

 walking, or when it is in good condition generally you 

 come to a place that you cannot get through without 

 making enough noise to alarm every deer within it. 

 Then, as a rule, the faster you go the better. For a 

 deer does not always start the instant he hears a 

 noise, and even very wild ones will often wait a mo- 

 ment to see what it is, to see if it is coming closer, etc. 

 Moreover, they may on a windy day or on ground of 

 peculiar formation be deceived in the distance or di- 

 rection of it though this is rare and wait a minute or 

 two to hide or look. In such case every yard that can 

 be gained upon a deer is important. And as a deer 



