46 HANDBOOK FOR CAMPERS. 



Cards containing the California fish and game laws may also 

 be secured, and the laws thereon should be strictly complied 

 with. 



The rangers know the best hunting country and the best fish- 

 ing streams, and will be glad to furnish information to those 

 who request it. 



The principal big-game animal on the National Forests in 

 California is the blacktail deer. The State Fish and Game 

 Commission estimates that 30,000 deer are killed each deer, 

 more than half of this number by mountain lions and the 

 remainder by hunters. 



Deer winter in the foothills, ranging up to higher levels as the 

 snow melts. During the early summer the bucks are often 

 found in the open glades and meadows feeding on grass and 

 tender shoots. Later they head for brushy areas and live off 

 the browse furnished by oak, hazel, blue brush, and various 

 other species. In the fall, in an oak country, they feed on 

 acorns. 



Since the best deer hunting is apt to occur during the height 

 of the dry season, it is particularly necessary that hunters be 

 careful not to set fires. 



The bucks shed their horns during the winter, the new horns 

 beginning to grow in early spring. During the summer these 

 are in the velvet — tender, full of blood vessels, and unfit for 

 mounting. Later the horns harden, the velvet is rubbed off, the 

 hide changes color from " red " to " blue," and the buck reaches 

 his prime condition. This season varies in different portions of 

 the State from mid-August to October, being earlier the lower 

 the elevation. As a general rule the bucks are in the best con- 

 dition toward the close of the open season. 



To transport a deer on a saddle horse throw a rope across the 

 saddle, pulling a loop of it forward through each cinch ring. 

 Place the buck across the saddle and put the head through one 

 loop and the haunches through the other. Draw the ends of the 

 rope tight, make a loop in one, reeve the other through it, and 

 make fast. 



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