360 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



generallj^ still himself, while the hunter is in motion, which helps 

 out his defective sight, and enables him to identify the moving 

 object. But few animals have a more correct vision than man. 

 It enables him to identify objects at a great distance, without the 

 aid of motion, but for successful Moose hunting — and the same 

 remark is generally true of other game as well — the vision 

 must be cultivated by long practice and careful study. This the 

 Indian has succeeded in doing to a greater extent than the cul- 

 tivated man. The reason of this is obvious. The mind of the 

 Indian is occupied with few and simple thoughts, and to these 

 he can devote all the energies of whatever intellect he has, 

 and hence we might expect great proficiency in the few pursuits 

 to which he devotes a life-time. But few white men make a life- 

 long business of hunting, and even these few have learned to think 

 of more subjects than the Indian, and those subjects will intrude 

 themselves, more or less, upon the cultivated mind, when not 

 under the strong excitement arising from the immediate presence 

 of game, and so he does not cultivate those senses, the highest 

 order of which are indispensable to meet the sharpened instincts 

 of the larger game whose constant apprehension makes them ever 

 on the alert. The improved vision of the Indian hunter, — and 

 that is the occupation of nearly all Indians, from childhood to 

 old age, — and that class of observations which enables him to 

 draw correct conclusions from slight evidence which would escape 

 the notice, or not arrest the attention, of the ordinary white 

 man, has been noticed by all who have hunted much with the 

 aborigines, and has been recorded by all who have written of 

 their experience. The instance just narrated, when the Indian 

 recognized the moose, when he was not moving, the instant he 

 came within the line of vision, and before the moose observed 

 the hunter, although in motion, is not singular, or even excep- 

 tional. 



But the hunters knew they had keener senses to deal with than 

 the dull eye of their game. His quick ear would detect the least 

 noise, and his acute sense of smell would detect the least taint in 

 the air, which would tell him of the presence of his enemies, when 

 the game would be lost. How these embarrassments were over- 

 come, is well explained, and they are always to be met with in 

 still-hunting the deer, and so indeed in many other modes of his 

 pursuit. 



While the still hunt may be followed at all seasons of the year, 

 and is available for all the species of the deer, the call hunting is 



