LOOKING FOR DEER THAT ARE ON FOOT. 69 



in Fancy's park again and forgot that you were in the 

 woods ; and when you raised your head more and 

 were looking around to the right he saw you, and 

 two jumps took him out of sight. Remember again 

 what I told you, that a deer is not six feet high in the 

 woods, and does not spend his time in posing for a 

 sculptor or artist. 



It will be quite useless now to go in the direction 

 in which he ran ; for not only do you stand little 

 chance of seeing him, but he will probably stampede 

 all deer along his course. 



You now wander along for nearly half a mile, seeing 

 plenty of fresh signs of deer, enough, combined with 

 what you have already seen, to justify the conclusion 

 that at least fifteen deer have fed on these ridges this 

 morning; and that is quite plenty enough to satisfy 

 any reasonable being. You begin to feel a strong 

 hope that you will soon see something. 



You do see something, but it is another set of long, 

 plunging jumps. Follow them back and see how you 

 lost the deer. As long as you hunt, no matter how 

 old you may grow in experience, make it your custom 

 whenever you lose a deer to study how you lost him. 

 This may occupy a little time at first, but in the end 

 it will well repay you. 



Following the jumps back, you find that the deer 

 was standing on the clear open top of the ridge when 

 he started. The direction of the wind shows that he 

 did not smell you; it is not at all likely that he heard 

 you, for you were moving very quietly and were also 

 down the wind from him, just as in the other case; 

 and a glance back at the ground over which you came 

 shows that you could have seen him at least a hun- 

 dred and fifty yards off. 



