DEER TRACKING. ISI 

plainer as his foot pushed a leaf down, the edges standing up 
like a cup, and now here in the soft earth is the full print of 
his foot; we will keep on this course as it is his line of travel ; 
we see fresh bitings, and there he has actually stopped to feed 
a few moments. If the sun is shining out, an occasional 
glance toward it will keep our reckoning; if not, we must 
refer often to the compass, to have the course we are travel- 
ling always in mind, so at the end of the hunt we can tell 
readily what our course must be to return. A deer at his 
ease, and feeding along, moves slowly and quietly; we 
should do the same rather than hurry or make any sudden 
movements. 
And now let us not shoot a brother hunter, and in fact we 
think no person should shoot at anything in the woods, when 
he sees something moving, until he is sure it is the game. It 
would be better to never shoot a deer than to have a lifelong 
regret. Ninty-nine times out of one hundred, if it is really 
the deer we see moving we know tt ts a deer and are sure 
of tt. So there seems no excuse whatever for the man that 
shoots at random, saying, I thought it a deer. 
If we get in sight of one and are so unlucky as to jump him 
before getting in our shot, we will not give it up altogether, 
for he, perhaps, only saw something odd, and likely never 
before saw a man in his life, and will have the curiosity to 
get another look at us. He often runs away a piece and stops 
hidden in a handy thicket on the knoll, where he can look 
back as we follow. Seeing such a cover, and knowing his 
style of manouvering, and his watching to see what we are, 
coming after him on only two legs, we do not gratify him by 
going straight to him, to see him kick out and run off again, 
but make a detour and circling around out of his sight, keep- 
