20 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



The plain truth is that there is no trustworthy rule 

 by which to decide in what section deer or antelope 

 are plenty enough to afford good sport. The only 

 reliance is on 



ist. General reputation of a range. 



2d. Information from those hunting or living upon 

 it. 



3d. Personal inspection of the range. 



When a certain section has the reputation of being 

 a good deer-range, such reputation is not apt to be 

 baseless. But when you reach it you will probably 

 have to decide for yourself whether it will reward 

 you to hunt it. And probably you will have to decide 

 for yourself upon which part the most game is likely 

 to be found ; for though few sources of information 

 are more reliable than general reputation of a range 

 few are more unreliable than special information about 

 it. The opinion of persons who are not hunters is 

 bad enough about almost any kind of game, but al- 

 most worthless about deer. Some people are always 

 seeing some wonderful thing, while others never see 

 anything beyond their immediate business. One man 

 will declare that " the woods is lined with 'em" be- 

 cause he occasionally sees one or two along the road 

 or near a spring, taking them, of course, every time 

 for different deer, or because he sees a few tracks in 

 his turnip-patch, counting unconsciously a deer to 

 every track, as is usual with most persons not hunters, 

 and with too many that are. Another dogmatically 

 assures you that " deer are mighty scurse" because 

 he does not see some every time he goes smashing 

 through dry leaves and dead sticks with hobnailed 

 stogey boots to look for his cattle in the woods. 



The opinion even of good hunters is very unreliable. 



