378 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 



chance will be lost. This the experienced hunter will never do, 

 for well he knows that care will in the end be rewarded with 

 success. He only expects to find a solitary individual, for these 

 deer are less gregarious than the others, and seldom wander far 

 in company. He may, as he cautiously peeps over the ridge or 

 from behind the rock, first sight the game within close range 

 cropping the leaves from the shrubbery, or the grass from the 

 valley, or the wild oats from the whitened field, or he may see 

 him half a mile away, clambering up the opposite mountain side 

 among the broken and scattered rocks. In the first case a single 

 deliberate shot ends the chase ; in the other, success is scarcely 

 less assured, for now that he sees the object of his pursuit, the 

 hunter watches his movements, according to which he lays his 

 plans and makes his approach with continued caution, which in 

 the end will surely bring him within range of the buck, whose 

 first notice of the presence of an enemy will be the fatal bullet 

 crashing through his frame, when he will leap high and fall 

 among the rocks, and in his dying struggles will roll far down 

 into the valley below. Sometimes the pursuit is ended while it 

 is yet early morning, and sometimes it lasts until the evening has 

 come, when the hunter will make a fire beside a broken rock, 

 cut out a steak and broil it, eat his supper, smoke his inevitable 

 pipe, and then lay himself down beside his trophy and count the 

 stars till he goes to sleep, all the time having his trusty rifle 

 within his reach. 



Such was the history of the chase and capture of the last 

 Black-tailed Deer which I helped to eat. He was a noble buck 

 with magnificent twice bifurcated antlers, which no doubt still lie 

 bleaching high up a canon of the Coast Range, about fifteen miles 

 from the Geyser Springs of California. It took the captor half 

 of the next day to bring out the meat to where he could reach it 

 with a mule, when he became too fatigued to go back for the 

 head and antlers, exceptional as they were in size. I do not be- 

 lieve there is any more fatiguing sport than this ; yet for all that 

 it is the more keenly relished, since sport without fatigue is often 

 too cheap to have a relish, is too insipid to have a flavor. 



Another favorite mode of chasing this deer is with hounds, 

 much after the manner of chasing the Virginia deer, notably in 

 Old Virginia, only it is generally done upon more level ground 

 and in heavier forests, though sometimes among the foot-hills 

 and even in the mountains. Even here the deer have their run- 

 ways, which the sportsmen of the neighborhood soon learn, 



