A DAY IN THE TABLE-LANDS. 179 



the high ground and pass half a dozen lying close in 

 the dark green shade of the sumacs and fusicas in the 

 valley, watching you all the time and knowing that 

 you do not see them. Now if you go down the valley 

 you will be far more apt to start them; for though 

 they will occasionally lie concealed in scattered brush 

 and let you pass near them, the prevailing rule is 

 quite the other way, provided you come close, say 

 fifty or sixty yards. Though they will often lie in a 

 bush and look at you at a hundred or a hundred and 

 fifty yards away, they will seldom let you get as close 

 as they often do in very thick brush. 



But even in this wild country there is such a vast 

 number of acres to the deer and such exceedingly 

 liberal measure given for an acre that it will not do 

 to go rambling aimlessly about, trusting to fortune to 

 start a deer. We will therefore go to a water-hole 

 about half a mile down that valley and see if any deer 

 watered there this morning, and, if so, which way they 

 went when they left it. But as there is a chance of 

 some deer being in this end of the valley, and as the 

 wind blows up it from the sea, we will go down it just 

 as carefully as if we knew some deer were in it. 



"Winding down an old cattle-trail at its upper end 

 we find ourselves in a little valley about a hundred 

 yards wide at the widest points, about half filled with 

 green bushes from four to eight or ten feet high, but 

 containing plenty of open places, and a cattle-trail 

 down the center that allows quiet and easy walking. 



Here, you see, are deer-tracks and "sign" already, 

 but they are yesterday's. Here have been a big buck, 

 a doe, two fawns, and a smaller buck yesterday. Now 

 be careful, for they may be here again to-day. Here, 

 you see, are signs of two or three days ago, showing 



