346 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
takes no more pleasure in it than he would in weeding a bed of 
onions, of course a study of the animals he kills would afford him 
no pleasure, but to the cultivated mind capable of understanding 
and appreciating the works of the Divine hand, the pleasures of 
the pursuit are immeasurably enhanced by a capacity to under- 
stand the object taken. 
No other genus of quadrupeds is distributed over so large a 
portion of the earth’s surface as the Cervide, no other has so 
largely contributed to the sustenance of uncivilized man, and the 
flesh of no other is so generally admired as food. From the fact 
that it has contributed more than any other quadruped to the 
support of savage life, it has been more the object of pursuit 
than any other by uncivilized races. 
In the border settlements of our own country, the deer has 
been an important source of food supply to our frontier settlers, 
who might justly be called a race of hunters; very few indeed 
have made it a constant business, but nearly all have made it an 
occasional and incidental pursuit. 
From the earliest times to the present, the deer has occupied 
the first rank as a game animal, affording exercise and excite- 
ment to the sportsman. In Africa alone the deer are not abun- 
dant, but the antelope, the buffalo, and the elephant, are there the 
principal objects of pursuit by the savage and the civilized. 
In a very limited area in our own country, the bison is, or 
was, more important than the deer, but the district is so small 
where the bison is or was found in plenty, that it loses all com- 
parison with the deer, which are abundant, in mountain and val- 
ley, in forest and prairie, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and 
from Cape Horn to the frozen islands in the Arctic Sea. 
In savage life, without the means furnished by civilization, 
the capture of the deer and other game was accomplished to a 
considerable extent by bows and arrows, but chiefly by means of 
traps or inclosures of various kinds, and the promptings of want 
developed contrivances which insured a large measure of success. 
These are all based upon the capabilities of the animals, de- 
veloped by their habits, which were a life study of the Indian 
hunter, and were comprehended by him in a remarkable degree. 
The principal of these, or at least the most important, are the 
defect of vision and the acuteness of the senses of smell and of 
hearing. These are characteristics which are common to all deer, 
and must never be forgotten by the{savage hunter or the civilized 
