The Whitetail Deer 91 



minds to leave the bottom. On one occasion a 

 buck came sneaking down a game trail through 

 the buck brush where I stood, going so low that 

 I could just see the tips of his antlers, and though 

 I made desperate efforts I was not able to get 

 into a position from which I could obtain a shot. 

 On another occasion, while I was looking intently 

 into a wood through which I was certain a deer 

 would pass, it deliberately took to the open ground 

 behind me, and I did not see it until it was just 

 vanishing. Normally, the end of my efforts was 

 that the deer went off and the hounds disappeared 

 after it, not to return for six or eight hours. Once 

 or twice things favored me ; I happened to take 

 the right turn or go in the right direction, and 

 the deer happened to blunder past me ; and then 

 I returned with venison for supper. Two or 

 three times I shot deer about nightfall or at 

 dawn, in the immediate neighborhood of the 

 ranch, obtaining them by sneaking as noiselessly 

 as possible along the cattle trails through the 

 brush and timber, or by slipping along the edge 

 of the river bank. Several times I saw deer 

 while I was sitting on the piazza or on the door- 

 step of the ranch, and on one occasion I stepped 

 back into the house, got the rifle, and dropped 

 the animal from where I stood. 



On yet other occasions I obtained whitetail 

 which lived not on the river bottoms but among 



