DEER ON OPEN GROUND. 169 



Suppose now the deer are in the valleys and the 

 hills are high ; the deer are on foot and you are on 

 the hills. You see a deer feeding in the valley, but 

 he is at least a hundred yards from the foot of the 

 hill, and the hill is nearly two hundred yards high. 

 This makes the distance too long for accurate shoot- 

 ing even on a level, and a down-hill shot of that length 

 is the very worst you could have. 



You will get closer then, will you ? Very good. 

 But you will rarely do it by going down the hill on the 

 valley side. Of all ways to approach a deer the worst 

 is down hill in his sight, unless the hill be such that 

 you can slide yourself down it sitting or lying down. 

 And even that is bad eno'ugh. Either deer or ante- 

 lope can see anything above them about as quickly 

 as they can anything below; at all events, quickly 

 enough. In sneaking down hill you show more of 

 your body than in crawling up hill, make quicker 

 motions, cannot hide behind trees and bushes so well, 

 and cannot stop yourself so quickly when a deer 

 raises his head as when you are going up hill. An- 

 other very important point is that a deer on low 

 ground can often notice any motion above him quite 

 as well when his head is down as when it is up. But 

 if you are below him on a hill-side he can rarely notice 

 you when his head is down. Deer cannot, indeed, 

 either smell or hear you so well when you are above 

 them, but the difference is not enough, in case of high 

 hills and long slopes, to outweigh the difference in 

 the advantage they have for seeing you. On the 

 whole, never try to creep down hill upon deer, and es- 

 pecially upon antelope, if you can possibly get a shot 

 in any oilier way. Your chances are but little better, 

 even when the hill-side is covered with timber, unless 



