68 THE STILL-HUNTER. 



twelve feet beyond these last. The dirt thrown out is 

 dark, soft, and damp. The bottom of the torn-up 

 place is in some spots clean, smooth, and even shiny 

 You need not be told what mean these long plunging 

 jumps of sharp-edged hoofs. But to take a good les- 

 son, follow the track back a few jumps. 



It leads back to the top of the ridge and stops at a 

 small clump of bushes about waist-high. Here, you 

 see, are some fresh tracks and droppings of a pretty 

 large deer. Here, too, are the ends of many twigs all 

 freshly bitten off. Mark, too, the direction of the 

 tracks the biter made as he stood here browsing. 

 You find that they point toward where you were a 

 minute or two ago. "It could not have been pos- 

 sible," do you think ? It does indeed seem strange 

 that a deer could have been standing in brush so low 

 and thin as this and you not see him. But that he 

 should run away in full bounding career without your 

 seeing or hearing him does seem incredible. 



Now put a piece of paper on these freshly bitten 

 twigs and then take your track back to the place 

 where you first come in sight of the paper. 



Following your track back some sixty yards along 

 the ridge, we reach a point where the paper first be- 

 comes visible. And behold ! you can almost see 

 through all that brush, and it appears not over two 

 feet high ! 



Now mark well your error, and never forget it. It 

 is not at all likely that he either heard or smelt you, 

 for you were going with extreme caution, and a gentle 

 breeze was rising and was in your face. But you 

 passed your eye too carelessly over that brush just 

 because it was so low and thin. You thought of course 

 you could see everything there. You were hunting 



