22 THE Sl^ILL-HUNTER. 



valley quail of Southern California. The deer will, 

 however, often go a long distance for water, and this 

 fact, combined with the fact that he can and often 

 will go without it, makes the water question some- 

 what unreliable in determining his whereabouts. 



A kind of ground that in some parts of the coun- 

 try will never contain a deer may in other sections 

 afford good sport. Yonder wide stretch of plain that 

 looks so bare to the eye, and is so far away from tim- 

 ber or hills that in Minnesota or Wisconsin a huntei 

 would not look at it, may in Southern California, Ari- 

 zona, or Mexico contain numbers of deer in those 

 gulches, cuts, gullies, and creek bottoms where from 

 a distance the shrubbery looks too thin and sparse 

 for even a jack-rabbit to live in. Yonder mountain, 

 that even through the glass seems only a frowning 

 mass of castle, crag, and boulder, may on inspection 

 yield many a deer stowed away in its little brushy 

 ravines or plateaus. And yonder wavy sea of stony 

 ground, so utterly bare of grass, so bare even of brush 

 except in the ravines, so bare of water that you can- 

 not camp there, may at times afford you good sport. 

 Hence it is about as puzzling to say where deer may 

 not be found as to say where they may be. 



There is not so much difficulty about the antelope. 

 There seems, indeed, to be no kind of ground too poor 

 for him to live on and keep, too, in fair condition, 

 though, unlike the deer, he lives mainly on grass in- 

 stead of browse. Though he loves the plains, he has 

 no objection to high rolling hills if they are not too 

 brushy. But he hates brush and timber; and though 

 he will occasionally go into thin brush or into very 

 open timber, he need never be sought where either 

 one is thick or extensive. 



