The Mule-deer 193 



quite beans may in places help round out his 

 sleek sides, while mescal and lechuga may relieve 

 the monotony of his diet; but if he can get 

 enough prickly pear, he will make you as fine 

 venison as you ever saw, and in places be so 

 abundant as to make fine hunting for those that 

 can endure the heat and dryness. You need not 

 trouble yourself in the slightest with the question 

 of how a deer can live where there is no water 

 for many a league. All he wants is the juicy 

 lobe of the prickly pear. This he eats, spines and 

 all, though they are sharp as the finest needles 

 and strong enough to go through an ordinary 

 boot-top, if you kick a little too hard. Strangely 

 enough, these needles do not seem to hurt the 

 mouth or tongue, though they can be plainly seen 

 glistening in the contents of the deer's stomach 

 when opened. They are then softened, but such 

 cannot be the case when they are swallowed. 

 When on this food deer not only can go without 

 water, but often go without it when it is perfectly 

 convenient. On the great Mexican desert known 

 as the Bolson de Mapimi, I hunted for several 

 weeks in 1884, stopping at a railroad station 

 twenty-five miles from anywhere, and known to be 

 twenty-five miles from any other water. Several 

 hundred feet from the station the leakage from 

 the water cars of the railroad made a shal- 

 low pond some fifty feet long and a dozen wide. 



