SUBORDINATE PRINCIPLES. 227 



cares little for the mere amount of noise, the quality and 

 nearness being the main things that determine his 

 action, you lose much less by your extra noise than 

 you gain by the extra speed. So, too, when you must 

 go down wind, the faster you can go the greater your 

 chances of getting close enough for a running shot 

 before your scent reaches a deer's nose. In all such 

 cases it is not advisable to run as you did on the deer 

 in the brush; though you had better do so in eyery 

 case in which you attempt to approach a deer that is 

 alarmed and looking at you, as he will only stand 

 about so long anyhow, and the mere rapidity of your 

 motion will not hurry him much. 



But, in general, you cannot commit a worse error 

 than walking too fast. And if deer are moderately 

 plenty, the wind favorable, the walking soft and still, 

 you can scarcely go too slowly in all those places where 

 you are likely to see a deer at any moment. 



Many good hunters say, " Never follow a deer that 

 has run away, but look for another." This advice is 

 substantially sound, but like nearly all good hunter's 

 advice is so carelessly stated that it is bad advice. To 

 follow directly on the track of a started deer is gener- 

 ally useless unless the deer are exceedingly tame and 

 the ground very rolling; and even then it is often use- 

 less except upon snow. Yet there are times when you 

 had better follow a deer. 



A deer when started will go from a quarter of a 

 mile to two or three miles. This will depend upon 

 his wildness, the nature of the ground over which he 

 has to run, and the cause of his alarm. During this 

 run he will stop from one to a dozen times and look 

 back a few minutes or seconds only. He will then 

 walk a few hundred yards, stopping several times to 



