The Creating of Game Refuges 



This is almost impenetrable. It is very largely 

 composed of scrub oak, buckthorn, chamisal or 

 greasewood, with a scattered growth of wild lilac, 

 wild cherry, etc. So far as the deer make this their 

 permanent home, there is no fear of their exter- 

 mination. They may be hunted effectively only 

 with the most extreme caution. Not one person in 

 a thousand ever attains to the level of a still-hunter 

 whose accomplishment guarantees him success 

 under such conditions. There are men of this sort, 

 but these are artists in their pursuit, whose attain- 

 ments, like those of the professional generally, are 

 beyond comparison with those of the ordinary 

 amateur. To hunt successfully in the chaparral, re- 

 quires a special genius. One must have exhaustless 

 patience, tact trained by a lifetime of this sort of 

 work, perseverance incapable of discouragement, 

 the silence of an Indian, and in this phrase when 

 we are dealing with the skill of one who can make 

 progress without sound through the tangles of the 

 dry and stiff California chaparral is involved an 

 exercise of skill comparable only to the fineness of 

 touch of a Joachim or a St. Gaudens. This sort 

 of hunter marks one end of the scale of perfection; 

 near the other and more familiar extreme is found 

 the individual of whom this story is told. He was 

 an Englishman and had just returned from a trip 



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