25 



AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



away from camp at the first streak of dawn, and might 

 not return until long after darkness. All the time be- 

 tween was spent in climbing and walking through the 

 rugged hills, keeping a sharp lookout for our game. 

 Only too often we were seen before we ourselves saw 

 the quarry, and even when this was not the case the 

 stalks were sometimes failures. Still blank days were not 

 very common. Probably every hunter remembers with 

 pride some particular stalk. I recall now outwitting a 

 big buck which I had seen and failed to get on two suc- 

 cessive days. He was hanging about a knot of hills with 

 brush on their shoulders, and was not only very watchful, 

 but when he lay down always made his bed at the lower 

 end of a brush patch, whence he could see into the valley 

 below, while it was impossible to approach him from 

 above, through the brush, without giving the alarm. On 

 the third day I saw him early in the morning, while he 

 was feeding. He was very watchful, and I made no at- 

 tempt to get near him, simply peeping at him until he 

 finally went into a patch of thin brush and lay down. 

 As I knew what he was I could distinctly make him out. 

 If I had not seen him go in, I certainly never would have 

 imagined that he was a deer, even had my eyes been able 

 to pick him out at all among the gray shadows and small 

 dead tree-tops. Having waited until he was well settled 

 down, I made a very long turn and came up behind him, 

 only to find that the direction of the wind and the slope 

 of the hill rendered it an absolute impossibility to ap- 

 proach him unperceived. After careful study of the 

 ground I abandoned the effort, and returned to my former 



