SPECIAL MODES OF HUNTING. 245 



the utmost strategy and caution will avail. And 

 whenever the ground will allow still walking you had 

 better depend only upon strategy and caution in hunt- 

 ing all deer, and let horses, cow-bells, etc., alone. 



The other mode is tiring down a deer so that he 

 loses his wildness so far as to allow you to get close 

 enough for a shot. This can generally be done only 

 upon snow so light as not to impede your walking, 

 while it enables you to follow the trail without delay 

 in looking for tracks. It may, however, with a very 

 fat deer be done on some kinds of bare ground where 

 rapid tracking is easy. I am aware that deer may be 

 run down on a deep crusty snow by a man on snow- 

 shoes. But this is mere brutal butchery. Whenever 

 the snow is deep enough and hard enough to do that 

 the deer are so poor as to be almost worthless either 

 for venison or for their hides. I refer only to tiring a 

 deer when in good condition and when he has some 

 chance for his life. 



Probably every one who has been much among old 

 hunters has heard of that illustrious individual who 

 can "run down a deer and whip him into camp with 

 his ramrod." Like the man who "shoots from the hip 

 as well as anybody else can from the shoulder," he is 

 a little hard to find. You can find his cousin, his 

 nephew, or his uncle without much difficulty, and you 

 can find plenty of men who have seen him; but you 

 cannot find him yourself. This admixture of what is 

 probably sheer nonsense with what is real truth has 

 caused many persons to disbelieve the real facts of 

 the case. 



If a deer be chased all day by a man upon a dog- 

 trot, or even upon a rapid walk, the deer toward even- 

 ing will tire down, not so that the man can catch or 



