The Columbia Blacktail 245 



the air is hot and very dry, the dog's scent is soon 

 impaired by running, especially in rough or brushy 

 ground. He does not pass water often enough to 

 drink, and has few or no wet weeds or grasses to 

 run through to wet his coat. Hence still-hunting 

 is in most cases the more satisfactory way of 

 hunting. 



As is usual in all still-hunting, the greater num- 

 ber of deer are lost by the inability of the hunter 

 to see them before they can see him. On the 

 enormous background on which most of the black- 

 tail must be detected by the eye this is even more 

 difficult than in most of the woods of the East. 

 Almost everywhere in heavy timber it takes the 

 finest of eyesight to see a deer before he is descend- 

 ing over some distant log or wheeling around the 

 upturned butt of some great fallen tree gone 

 just as you raise the rifle and often before. The 

 deer with individual hairs glistening on its back, 

 with dew claws and even the split in the hoofs 

 all in plain sight, exists only in the mind of the 

 artist of pavement education. No such animal is 

 seen in nature. Nor does the deer in the woods 

 correspond much better to the picture you have 

 formed in your mind from seeing a deer in a park 

 or stuffed in a museum. Generally you see none 

 of the legs, and unless the game is in motion rarely 

 see more than half of the body. But at the time 

 you most want to catch sight of it before it can 



