316 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



Who has not felt this when among the mountains, 

 and wondered at the ever-changing deceptiveness of 

 heights and distances? 



Traveling once with a friend who was boasting of 

 his ability to roll deer right and left at five hundred 

 yards running or standing, and whom this poetry 

 failed to touch (as it will the reader, being the only 

 poetry in the book), I asked an old surveyor at whose 

 camp w r e stopped how he could estimate distance. 



"Well," said he, "when I stay several days on one 

 kind of ground I can make a tolerably fair guess on 

 short distances. But as soon as I get on a different 

 kind of ground I don't know anything." 



Considerable practical skill may, however, be culti- 

 vated up to two hundred and fifty or even three hun- 

 dred yards on the plains, and there are hunters who 

 can judge distance well enough to hit an antelope at 

 two hundred yards three times out of five at the first 

 shot, all other conditions being of course complied 

 with. It is doubtful, however, if any one can do this 

 anywhere but on such open ground as antelope fre- 

 quent. 



If you think I underestimate what is good shooting 

 at two hundred yards, look over the two-hundred-yard 

 scores made at matches by our best target-shots. 

 Recollect, too, that these scores are generally better 

 than can be made by any mere hunter, the difference 

 being that the hunter can generally shoot as well at 

 game as he can at a target, which the mere target- 

 shot cannot do. Remember, too that the bull's-eye is 

 clear white or black on a black or white ground, is 

 eight inches in diameter, is always in the same light, 

 position, etc., and that its distance is known to a foot 



