AFTER BIG-GAME IN WYOMING 215 



The least interesting of our sporting trophies were 

 the heads of the black-tail deer. 



The best western venison, and, to my mind, the 

 poorest sport, is provided by the black-tail buck. 

 This deer skulks in thick cover, carries a pretty but 

 uninteresting head, and when disturbed usually rings. 

 An orthodox stalk after a black-tail deer was most 

 unusual. It was generally a question of riding 

 through steep-sided canons and along pine-covered hill- 

 sides and shooting on sight when a buck was jumped. 

 These animals depend largely on cover and conceal- 

 ment rather than on speed (though they are fast 

 enough) for safety. Once when after elk, I rode 

 round a rocky hill to within 80 yards of a fairly good 

 black-tail buck, standing under a large rock and amid 

 a few small trees. He was in full sight and looking 

 at us. We had plenty of venison and did not want his 

 head, and so rode on unheeding. The buck stood 

 perfectly still, and watched us out of sight without 

 moving a muscle. He thought himself unseen, his 

 gray autumn coat harmonizing exactly with his sur- 

 roundings. Had we stopped to take a shot, he would 

 no doubt have been off at once, with the bounding, 

 springy gallop characteristic of these deer. 



One of the last black-tail I killed, in 1894, was 

 secured in a somewhat curious manner. We were 

 camped on the Three Forks of Snake River late in 

 the fall. The deer were all leaving the Main Divide 

 for winter range on the Red Desert. Venison was 

 necessary for our camp, and I was returning with my 

 hunter after a long day's ride without having seen a 

 single buck, though does were plentiful enough. We 

 were close to camp, out of the good deer-ground, a 

 disappointed pair of horsemen without any prospect 



