178 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



mingled with many scarcely five hours old. Here a Deer 

 had sauntered down between two rows of vines without 

 stopping, and there one had stopped and eaten half a dozen 

 bunches of grapes before passing on. In the orchard, 

 below the vineyard, havoc was visible upon all sides. Here, 

 still hanging on the trees, were large, luscious Japanese 

 persimmons from which a whole side had been taken at a 

 single bite, and others lay scattered upon the ground in a 

 still greater state of ruin. 



Oranges and lemons had been passed, apparently, in dis- 

 dain, but the late peaches, pears, and apples had suffered, and 

 the twigs of plums, apricots, and other deciduous trees had 

 been freely nipped. Along the edge of both orchard and vine- 

 yard were hundreds of fresh foot-prints, where the Deer had 

 come in and gone out, some having jumped the fence of 

 barbed wire, others having crawled under it. One would 

 suppose that at least fifty Deer had been in during the night; 

 but we had had enough experience before to cause us to 

 reduce the calculation to a dozen, at the most. Some had 

 gone out, played around the adjacent slopes, and returned 

 again, and some had j)assed in and out several times, and 

 all had made many more tracks than were at all necessary. 



Starting at the western end of the orchard, we made a 

 circuit on the outside of that and the vineyard, so as to find 

 the tracks that it would be most advisable to follow. Three 

 Deer, including a large buck, had gone out on the west, but 

 they had gone into a canon that was quite brushy. As the 

 wind was from the east, our chances of a near approach 

 were so slender that we left that trail until afternoon, by 

 which time the wind might have changed. On the south, 

 two had gone out. After following these a few hundred 

 yards, we found that they too had gone westward, and, as it 

 was quite certain some had gone out at the eastern end of 

 the'vineyard, we left this trail, also on account of the wind. 



At the eastern end, we found that five had gone out— a 

 doe, two large fawns, and two other Deer leaving foot-prints 

 a trifle larger than those of the doe. These tracks were well 

 mixed with those of each night for the past week; the 



