50 THE INLAND SEA REVISITED. 



place. The beaters were now at work, but after stand- 

 ing still for an hour, and no deer appearing, I moved 

 on again half a mUe ahead of the Japanese and their 

 dogs. No success following this move, and trying once 

 more, I got tired of so much waiting ; so bidding the 

 men adieu, I started to try some ground on the way home. 

 It was late in the afternoon, and I knew the deer ought 

 to be well on their feed, and very likely not far from 

 the mountain streams. Examining the banks carefully 

 as we came upon the clear pools, I at last found some 

 very fresh tracks. The animals could not have left the 

 spot ten minutes before. Sending my attendant down 

 the stream, I turned up its course, keeping some 

 twenty yards in the cover. In this way I had noise- 

 lessly advanced a quarter of a mile, when three shadow- 

 like forms started from a thicket thirty yards ahead. I 

 had just time to pull one trigger before they were gone. 

 There appeared, however, no satisfactory result, and, 

 listening, I could hear the deer dashing along the crest 

 of the hill, making for the higher ranges. No luck 

 to-day, I thought, as I went to examine the spot 

 the animals had started from. The grass and fern 

 showed no signs such as I hoped to find. However, I 

 let my retriever go, and listened. Three or four 

 minutes elapsed, and, to my delight, I heard the good 



