SPORT AND TRAVEL 251 



the rivers which flow into the great plains from the 

 eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and never 

 ascend the mountains themselves like the mule deer 

 or the wapiti. Once very plentiful, they have now 

 been almost exterminated in this State, as their 

 haunts are being rapidly settled up. One settler, 

 living on a ranch just below where we were camped, 

 told me that it was several years since he had seen 

 one killed, and said that the few that were left were so 

 shy and wary that it was useless to hunt them. The 

 snow, however, was in my favour, so I resolved to have 

 a good try for one, Graham being as keen in the 

 matter as I was myself. That afternoon we poked 

 about quietly amongst the scrub along the river, but 

 saw nothing. Fine snow kept constantly falling and 

 continued to do so till late in the night, so that when 

 we got up the next morning there was quite a foot of 

 snow on the ground. 



As soon as we had had something to eat, Graham 

 and I sallied forth into the white frozen world which 

 lay around our camp. It was Nov. 4, 1897, the 

 day on which the first railway train entered Bulu- 

 wayo, and we had scarcely walked half a mile from 

 camp when we came on the track of a deer, which 

 had passed in the night whilst the snow was still fall- 

 ing. It was impossible to tell exactly what it was, 

 mule deer or white tail, buck or doe, as the hoof-prints 

 had been nearly obliterated by the falling snow. 

 However, Graham thought that as the tracks led 



