The Whitetail Deer 69 



ranchman first came into this country the mule- 

 deer swarmed, and yielded a far more certain 

 harvest to the hunter than did either the prong- 

 buck or the whitetail. They were the first to be 

 thinned out, the prongbuck lasting much better. 

 The cowboys and small ranchmen, most of whom 

 did not at the time have hounds, then followed 

 the prongbuck ; and this, in its turn, was killed 

 out before the whitetail. But in other places a 

 slight change in the conditions completely re- 

 versed the order of destruction. In parts of 

 Wyoming and Montana the mountainous region 

 where the mule-deer dwelt was of such vast extent, 

 and the few river bottoms on which the white- 

 tail were found were so easily hunted, that the 

 whitetail was completely exterminated throughout 

 large districts where the mule-deer continued to 

 abound. Moreover, in these regions the table- 

 lands and plains upon which the prongbuck was 

 found were limited in extent, and although the 

 prongbuck outlasted the whitetail, it vanished 

 long before the herds of the mule-deer had been 

 destroyed from among the neighboring mountains. 

 The whitetail was originally far less common 

 in the forests of northern New England than was 

 the moose, for in the deep snows the moose had 

 a much better chance to escape from its brute 

 foes and to withstand cold and starvation. But 

 when man appeared upon the scene he followed 



