COLUMBIAN BLACK-TAILED DEER. 
29 
woody dells and “ gulches,” the hardy miners have killed hundreds, nay 
thousands, of Black-tailed Deer ; and it is from the accounts they have 
given that it is now known to replace, near the great Sierra Nevada, the 
common or Yirginian Deer which is found east of the Rocky Mountains ; 
all the hunters who have visited California, and whom we have seen, tell 
us that every Deer they shot there was the Black-tailed species. 
J. W. Audubon killed a good many of these Deer, and describes them 
as tender and of good flavour ; and during the time his party encamped on 
the Tuolome River, and in the “ dry diggings” near Stockton, when he 
kept two of his men busy shooting for the support of the others, they 
generally had one or two Deer brought into camp every day. The mode 
of hunting them was more similar to what is called Deer-stalking in 
Scotland than to the methods used for killing Deer in the eastern part of 
the Union. Sometimes the hunters (who had no dogs) would start before 
day, and, gaining the hills, anxiously search for fresh tracks in the muddy 
soil (for it was then the rainy season, and the ground everywhere wet and 
soft), and, having found a trail, cautiously follow ; always trying to keep 
the wind in such a direction as not to carry the scent to the animals. 
After discovering a fresh track, a search of a most tedious and toilsome 
nature awaited them, as the unsuspecting Deer might be very near, or miles 
off, they knew not which ; at every hill-top they approached, they were 
obliged to lie down and crawl on the earth, pausing when they could 
command the view to the bottom of the valley which lay beyond the one 
they had just quitted ; and after assuring themselves none were in sight, 
carefully following the zigzag trail, proceed to the bottom. Again another 
s umm it, has been almost reached ; now the hunters hope for a shot : eye 
and ear are strained to the utmost, and they move slowly forward ; the 
ridge of the next hill breaks first upon their sight beyond a wide valley. 
The slope nearest them is still hidden from their view. On one side the 
mountains rise in steeper and more irregular shapes ; pine-trees and oaks 
are thickly grown in the deepest and most grassy spot far below them. 
The track trends that way, and silently they proceed, looking around at 
almost every step, and yet uncertain where their game has wandered. 
Once the trail has been almost lost in the stony, broken ground they pass, 
but again they have it ; now they approach and search in different 
directions the most likely places to find the Deer, but in vain ; at last they 
gain the next summit : the object of their chase is at hand ; suddenly they 
see him — a fine buck — he is yet on the declivity of the hill, and they 
> cautiously observe his motions. Now they see some broken ground and 
rocky fragments scattering towards the left ; they redouble their caution ; 
locks are ready cocked ; and, breathing rapidly, they gain the desired spot 
