380 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
and has no business to be studying mathematics when he is still- 
hunting the Columbia Black-tailed Deer. 
THE COMMON DEER. 
The Virginia Deer is not only the most abundant, and hence 
the most useful of all the American species, but its capture af- 
fords the most varied and the most exciting exercise to the 
sportsman. Its sight is fully equal if not superior to that of any 
of the other species, while its senses of hearing and smell are 
only inferior to those of the moose. It has an intelligence which 
enables it to resort to expedients to baffle its pursuer, and it pos- 
sesses a vitality which enables it to escape with wounds, which 
would prostrate some other species at once. If its actual endur- 
ance is inferior to some others, in fleetness it surpasses all of 
them. 
In all the territory now occupied by the United States and 
Northern Mexico at least, the Common Deer was a large resource 
for food to the aborigines, and hence the pursuit of them was a 
life study with the Indian. His principal weapon of destruction 
was the bow and arrow; to make this effective, it was necessary 
to approach the game within very short range, and to accomplish 
this his ingenuity was taxed to the utmost. To be successful he 
must be familiar with the habits, the tastes, the instincts, and the 
capabilities of the animal. Taking advantage of the wind he 
waylaid him on his known routes from one place to another, he 
secreted himself in trees near the salt licks, to which the deer 
paid nocturnal visits. At other times he would assume the skin 
with the head and antlers of the deer, and thus disguised, cau- 
tiously approach his game to within shooting distance. He 
would sometimes imitate the call of the young fawn, and thus 
allure the mother within his reach. In deep snows, he pursued 
the deer on snow-shoes, and soon exhausted the strength of the 
latter in the unequal chase, or followed him on the crust, through 
which the struggling animal would sink and lacerate his legs in 
his efforts to escape. 
The early settlers of this country, depended largely upon this 
deer for their provisions, and their mode of pursuing it was gen- 
erally the still-hunt. When the deer were abundant in all the 
forests the new comers had little trouble in securing an abundant 
supply of venison, without even much effort or the loss of much 
time. In the winter, when they cut down trees to browse their 
