Tbe WUtetail Deer 75 



various paths in order to obtain food. If there 

 are many deer together, the yards may connect 

 by interlacing paths, so that a deer can run a con- 

 siderable distance through them. Often, however, 

 each deer will yard by itself, as food is the prime 

 consideration, and a given locality may only have 

 enough to support a single animal. When the 

 snows grow deep the deer is wholly unable to 

 move, once the yard is left, and hence it is abso- 

 lutely at the mercy of a man on snow-shoes, or of 

 a cougar or a wolf, if found at such times. The 

 man on snow-shoes can move very comfortably ; 

 and the cougar and the wolf, although hampered 

 by the snow, are not rendered helpless like the 

 deer. I have myself scared a deer out of a yard, 

 and seen it flounder helplessly in a great drift be- 

 fore it had gone thirty rods. When I came up 

 close it ploughed its way a very short distance 

 through the drifts, making tremendous leaps. 

 But as the snow was over six feet deep, so that 

 the deer sank below the level of the surface at 

 each jump, and yet could not get its feet on the 

 solid ground, it became so exhausted that it fell 

 over on its side and bleated in terror as I came up ; 

 after looking at it I passed on. Hide hunters 

 and frontier settlers sometimes go out after the 

 deer on snow-shoes when there is a crust, and 

 hence this method of killing is called crusting. 

 It is simple butchery, for the deer cannot, as the 



