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 caiion 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, 
