360 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
generally 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 igs generally true of other game as well— the vision 
must be cultivated by long practice and careful study. This the 
Indiar 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 
