Chapter XX
Subordinate Principles

 

   I have now gone over all the varieties of ground upon which still-hunting proper can be followed to advantage. There are of course many other kinds of ground which abound in deer. But every piece worth still-hunting at all will be included under the heads so far considered.

  So, also, I have brought into view all the general principles that lie at the foundation of all still-hunting or stalking of any kind of large game. And all the modifications of those principles that are likely to often arise have been seen. But there still remain some subordinate or special principles to be examined, and some that we have already had a glimpse of must be looked at more closely. A deer when started may generally be halted by any sudden, new, or strange noise in a direction different from that of the noise or thing that alarmed him. But to have this effect he must not see anything to alarm him. Hence if a deer be coming toward you and be not too closely pursued by anything, a bleat like that of a sheep, a sharp whistle, yell, or other noise will be very apt to cause him to stop.

  But, as a rule, a deer will not stop for any noise in the direction of the cause of his alarm, especially if he has smelt a person. The report of your gun is quite likely to make him stop, if anything will; though I believe that where such is the case there is generally an echo that perplexes the deer so that he knows not whence the sound comes.

  Sometimes a strange noise like that of a shot from a rifle will so perplex a deer that he will not run at all until he not only knows what it is but knows its direction. We saw an instance of this in the last chapter. To some this may have appeared a trifle overdrawn. But I know numerous cases of a deer standing while a dozen bullets whizzed around him, at short range too; and have one well-attested case of a gentleman shooting out five cartridges he had in his Winchester, and then refilling and emptying it twice, making thirty-five shots at a single deer only a hundred yards away. He told me this himself; and two of his companions counted the shots.

  Such a fool does mere curiosity sometimes make of deer that they will stay to investigate the noise even when they see the shooter plainly. Once, while returning from a hunt that I had to give up because of an attack of sick headache, I saw three deer run up a range of low hills quarter of a mile from the wagon. I made a detour and got above and nearly ahead of them; but was so weak and exhausted by running and climbing with the headache that I could scarcely stand. While waiting to catch my breath and let my hand get a little steadiness, they came directly in plain sight of me. Seeing that they would pass out of sight in a minute if I did not shoot, I commenced operations. I had a Sharp's rifle and eighteen cartridges in my belt and one in my rifle. Those deer stopped within sixty yards at the first shot, and one stood there until I fired away the last shot. I tried my very best to miss them entirely; but about the tenth shot one got hit in the kidneys with a ball intended for the shoulder, and about the seventeenth shot a ball intended for the nearest of the two remaining ones hit the other one standing a few steps beyond. After the last cartridge was gone the last one still stood looking, and stayed until I moved several steps toward him with the empty rifle. During nearly all this time I stood in plain sight, making plenty of motion with loading and firing, and after shooting a few times I had to move a few steps to a stone to sit down upon. Yet all the while the deer seemed determined to know what sort of a noise that was, though they saw me plainly.

  All such cases are, however, rare exceptions, and generally happen only with deer that have seldom or never seen a man or heard a gun. There is but one sound principle to be drawn from them. And that is this: whenever you see a deer moving, whether merely traveling, or alarmed either by you or someone else, get ahead of him and above him if you can do so.

  For this reason it is often advisable to open fire at once upon a running deer, where you have a rifle that can be rapidly loaded. But if you have a single-loading gun or muzzle-loader, and are not a good shot at running game, the chances of the deer stopping anyhow may be greater than your chances of hitting him; and in case he does stop he is almost certain to stop just long enough to let you load and raise the rifle about half way to a level and then he is cantering gayly away. A deer running up hill is very apt to stop once or twice to look back, and even when very wild he is apt to stop at the top of the hill for an instant. Hence it may be best to reserve your fire unless you have a repeater or double breech-loader. But running down hill a deer is not apt to stop. And running on a level he is less likely to stop than when running up hill, but more likely to stop than when running down hill. All these principles will, however, be modified by the question whether the deer knows what he is running from. If he has smelt you or seen you plainly he is far less apt to stop on any kind of ground; but if he has run only from the noise you make he is more likely to stop.

  In the last chapter we saw how a deer may be approached in the open field of his vision. In that case, however, he did not see you, or at least noticed nothing suspicious; as, if he saw you at all, he did not know you from a stump.

  There is one case, however, in which a deer may be approached while looking directly at you and perhaps suspecting what you are. There are some deer so tame that you may do this even on open ground for a short distance; but I do not refer to such, and no conclusions should be drawn from such cases. I refer to deer pretty wild; though, as a rule, it can be done only with tame ones.

  Here, for instance, is a big buck a hundred and fifty yards or more away. He is standing in brush nearly shoulder-high; you can see only his horns and ears, and they are turned directly toward you. It is plain that he has seen you first and is ready to go at any instant.

  You know the difficulty of hitting the head at that distance; you know the folly of trying to hit his body by guesswork; and you also know he will not tarry long. Now the same brush that conceals his body also conceals the greater part of yours this being supposed to be brushy open ground, the only place where this kind of approaching can be done with any fair chance of success and by taking advantage of that fact you may with quickness cut down the distance to seventy-five yards before he starts. Down, then, with your head if you can, and run directly toward him. If you cannot hide your head drop your hat, or you might as well drop it in either case. But run, run, run as fast as you can, and never mind necessary noise, but make none needlessly. You will often lose a shot this way, but you will more often get a better one than you could have had from where you first saw the head. In the same way you may charge on deer with a horse.

  You have already seen that if you walk too fast you will make too much noise, will not have time to look as closely and carefully as you should do, and that your quick motions will catch a deer's sight more quickly than if moving slowly. But there are other cases besides that above given where it may be expedient to walk very fast. Suppose, for instance, the ground is in such condition from crusty snow or dry leaves or other cause that you must make a noise in walking, or when it is in good condition generally you come to a place that you cannot get through without making enough noise to alarm every deer within it. Then, as a rule, the faster you go the better. For a deer does not always start the instant he hears a noise, and even very wild ones will often wait a moment to see what it is, to see if it is coming closer, etc. Moreover, they may on a windy day or on ground of peculiar formation be deceived in the distance or direction of it though this is rare and wait a minute or two to hide or look. In such case every yard that can be gained upon a deer is important. And as a deer cares little for the mere amount of noise, the quality and nearness being the main things that determine his action, you lose much less by your extra noise than you gain by the extra speed. So, too, when you must go down wind, the faster you can go the greater your chances of getting close enough for a running shot before your scent reaches a deer's nose. In all such cases it is not advisable to run as you did on the deer in the brush; though you had better do so in every case in which you attempt to approach a deer that is alarmed and looking at you, as he will only stand about so long anyhow, and the mere rapidity of your motion will not hurry him much.

  But, in general, you cannot commit a worse error than walking too fast. And if deer are moderately plenty, the wind favorable, the walking soft and still, you can scarcely go too slowly in all those places where you are likely to see a deer at any moment.

  Many good hunters say, "Never follow a deer that has run away, but look for another." This advice is substantially sound, but like nearly all good hunter's advice is so carelessly stated that it is bad advice. To follow directly on the track of a started deer is generally useless unless the deer are exceedingly tame and the ground very rolling; and even then it is often use-less except upon snow. Yet there are times when you had better follow a deer.

  A deer when started will go from a quarter of a mile to two or three miles. This will depend upon his wildness, the nature of the ground over which he has to run, and the cause of his alarm. During this run he will stop from one to a dozen times and look back a few minutes or seconds only. He will then walk a few hundred yards, stopping several times to look back. Then he will feed or browse a little and do plenty of looking back. Then he will wander about and stand-around for a while, still looking back. And finally he will lie down and think nothing more of the back track unless he be one of the learned ones that always watch the back track. But some deer such as a very fat buck on a warm day are decidedly lazy. I have known such a one run only out of sight over a ridge, stop in the, comfortable shade of a big bush, watch there a few minutes, and then lie down. So I have known a band of deer run over two or three ridges and there stop and begin feeding in five minutes, keeping then no more watch in the direction from which they came than in any other. These and many others I have known were cases in which the deer ran only from noise and did not know what caused it. But deer when very tame will often do it when they have seen or smelled you. But even in such cases do not follow directly upon the trail if you can possibly avoid it. And be twenty times more careful than ever before how you peep over a ridge.

  Although this will generally fail with deer at all wild, yet it by no means follows that it is necessary to follow them at once. Suppose you start a handsome buck or a band of deer this morning. It may be worth while to take the trail in the afternoon and follow it up as you would the trail of any deer. And though it might not reward you to keep directly on the trail all the time, it may be best to follow it up to the point where the deer begin to straggle and browse; then back out and make a detour; and then either sit them out if it be open ground and you can get a commanding view, or else hunt as you would for any deer. But deer of any kind either wild or tame may often be followed and overhauled by a dashing runner. And a very ordinary runner can often get ahead of a started deer or flank him so as to get a good shot. This will generally fail. But success attends the effort so often that I do not hesitate to say, always follow a deer under these circumstances:

 

   1.st. Where the deer runs around a hill and you can cut across it or run around the other way, or where he runs over it and you can run around it quickly.

   2.nd. Where the deer runs into a basin, pocket, or valley and you can make a short-cut to one side or the head of it. If such basin or pocket be up a hill some distance the deer will be quite apt to stop awhile in it.

   3.rd Where the deer runs into a long valley with a broad bottom or a narrow one with a good trail at the bottom. In such case run parallel with the ravine, but on the dividing ridge, and keep out of sight except when you peep over. A deer is apt to be in little haste in traversing such valleys.

   4.th. In all cases where the ground will allow you to, make a circuit and get ahead of the deer or even abreast with him, but on one side.

 

  While doing this you must never forget that the deer even when walking moves quite fast, and when he is running you have not a second to spare. Your only hope lies in cutting off distance, and that in the shortest possible time. Hence there are kinds of ground, such as across a wide valley or up a long hill, where you will see at a glance that running would be folly.

  Deer will sometimes stand and let a man at a distance pass by, especially along a road where they know people travel; for a deer knows about as well as a man what a road means. But even when there is no road deer will sometimes stand. And then they will be apt to trot off and walk, trot or run for a mile or two, and look back just as if pursued. Therefore, when some one comes rushing in and tells you about an "awful big buck" he just saw along the road or near a spring, instead of rushing frantically out on a wild-goose chase, just coolly inquire what the deer was doing, whether he saw your informant or not, and whether he moved away, and whether he went off on a walk, trot, or run. And remember that a deer started by some one else is no better to follow than one you have started yourself.

  When you start a deer that you cannot see, but only hear or get a glimpse of, spring at once to the highest bit of ground at hand. And if you do not see the game at once do not get uneasy, for it may have stopped a moment in brush or somewhere where you cannot at once see it. You will generally lose nothing by such patience, for if your deer has passed on out of sight you will be too late to head him off. And if you are going to track him there is no haste. But if you see him again at all shoot at once, for it is likely to be your last chance for that time.

  Antelope rarely stop to look back much until at a pretty safe distance. They are generally sufficiently amused with the first crack of a rifle, and have little more curiosity about its nature or direction. And though they may stop and take a long look at you, and look very large and close as they loom up against the sky, yet that stopping-point is far away, and the moment you move they are apt to move also. There is little or no chance for you to head off or flank these slippery beauties, though a companion may sometimes get behind them by a long detour if you keep still and let them watch you.

  Antelope are also such wide travelers that unless exceedingly tame or upon very advantageous ground it will rarely be worth while to follow up any that you have once started. But there are kinds of ground upon which with a good horse it will be worth while. And in such case and in fact with deer also it is always best to give them plenty of time to get quieted down. And even then approach them from behind or one side if possible, and not on the back trail.

Chapter XXI
Two Or More Persons Hunting In Company, Hunting On Horseback

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  Thus far the beginner has been supposed to be entirely alone; for the most necessary knowledge is how to manage a deer when alone. But two or more good hunters may often assist one another very much; on some kinds of ground it is quite essential to have a companion; in some places it may be unpleasant or unsafe to hunt alone.

  After what you have already seen of the habits of deer very little information is needed about hunting with a companion. By your side, ahead of you, or behind you he should seldom be. Two persons are much more apt to be heard than one; each one is in haste to get the first look over a ridge; each one hurries and flurries the other, just as two pointers or setters working together on a warm trail of birds are apt to excite and more or less demoralize each other even beneath the very whip of the trainer. Consequently there is four or five times the danger of alarming a deer, and of missing one if shot at. Two persons unless very steady shots should never try to shoot at once at the same deer, or even into a band. Let one have the first shot even though a second chance be lost. And it is poor policy for two to try and creep together even on a band of deer or antelope. If one cannot get around and lie in the course the game is likely to take when it runs, he had better stay back and leave all the fun to his comrade. Men who have hunted for market or for skins for a long time may of course acquire the stolidity of butchers and not excite each other. But the mere amateur had better heed the above advice.

  In moving over pretty level ground two persons should keep abreast: in the woods just far enough apart to keep in sight of each other; in open ground still farther apart. Then if either start a deer it may run across the course of the other one. On rolling ground you may generally keep closer together than on level ground. In going up a valley take opposite sides of the bottom, if the bottom be a hundred or two hundred yards or so in width. But if narrow at the bottom, with high sides, it may be better for one to take the bottom and the other the high ground above or walk pretty well up along the side. Should the bottom of a valley narrow and deep contain trees or brush in which deer are apt to be lying this should always be done, as they will not be apt to start unless some one be in the bottom, and then the one in the bottom may either get no shot at all or a very poor one. Should the valley be both narrow and shallow so as to be a mere gully from which deer will start at sight of a person along the edge, then you should take opposite edges. In going around a hill take opposite sides, whether you go around at the base or at the top. When going along a ridge toward the point each person should take one side of the top just below the level of the top, so that he can see anything running along the sides or top either. In traversing a ridge the other way one had better make a circuit and get upon the back of the ridge far away from the point, and then let the other ascend the point. The same plan is often advisable in traversing a short gulch or ravine, instead of each one taking one edge. But it is not always worth while to take this trouble unless you have reason to believe you will start something. You will of course divide at all windfalls, brush-patches, etc., where there is any probability of a deer, and either keep abreast in going around or let one take a wide circuit first and get on the opposite side while you go through. Movements of this sort become quite obvious after you once thoroughly know the habits of deer. It is scarcely necessary now to tell you where to post a third or fourth companion if you should have one with you.

  Good deer-driving may often be done by a single person. One man can generally start a deer from a piece of ground, especially if he goes down wind, quite as effectually as a dozen dogs. There is a partial exception to this in the case of the skulking deer; but, if they are at all plenty, enough of them will run to give your companions a shot. This is often the only way that a piece of noisy or very brushy ground can be hunted without dogs.

  This driving may be done by letting one or more persons go through the ground where the deer are likely to be, cracking plenty of brush on the way, while the rest are posted at probable points of escape for the game. But this is not worth while unless you already know about where the game is, or you are driving a basin or gulch or hill almost certain to contain something. A better way when you are uncertain of the game and are skirmishing about at random to find it is to form a line, and move abreast about a hundred yards apart in the woods and two hundred to three hundred or even more in open ground. But if the open*be very rolling or brushy, keep the same distance as in the woods. This line should be curved by the ends going forward and the center lagging a little when approaching a likely looking place. This, however, requires good know- ledge of the ground and a previous understanding among the party. I have seen Indians do it to great advantage in very dense woods, making a perfect drag-net of the line.

  A large number of persons may be used in such a way. But first-rate work can be often done by four or five and without bending the line. It requires only a general knowledge of the places where deer are likely to be, and of the directions they are likely to take when started. Here, for instance, is a set of short ravines running into a main valley. These little ravines lie nearly parallel with each other, are quite numerous, brushy, and good places for deer. Now instead of going down one and up another, etc., as a single person should often do if he is to hunt them at all, the line should sweep across them all; one person being at the head, another at the mouth, the rest between. This is because it can be done in one quarter of the time the other way would require, and because the deer are more apt to run up or down the ravines than across them.

  When hunting with companions always shoot when a deer runs toward any of them, even if you have no good shot. For if a person be not expecting it, a deer may be out of shot before he knows it, or may slip past him quite unseen and unheard. A shot is the surest warning that can be given.

  When you hear a comrade shoot, run at once to a rock, piece of high ground, or other commanding position. Remain there some time keeping a sharp outlook, for a deer may not be running away from your friend fast. Or he may be wounded and only walking away. And if the ground be brushy it will take both patient and keen watching to keep a slowly traveling deer from passing you unseen and unheard. But never go at once to your companion unless he calls you, for he may not be done shooting, or may have wounded, one and be trying to get another shot at it, etc. etc.

  In hunting antelope with companions in the ways above shown, the distances you should be from one another must generally be vastly greater than when hunting deer. They should be at least doubled for the very tamest antelope, unless upon very rolling ground. And for wild ones on ground that is but a little rolling the distances should be five or six and sometimes nearly ten times as great. When antelope get once started upon a certain course they are often hard to turn from it by anything approaching from the side; especially if the leading buck get ahead before he sees the danger. Hence a horseman can dash in quite close to a long-strung-out band of antelope by running in well behind the leader. They can be turned, however, and driven back and forth by being headed off by outposts placed far enough out ahead of them. Deer could probably be managed the same way upon the same kind of ground, though they are ready enough to swerve from their chosen course when they see danger on either side of it. And they care but little for leaders. All such hunting on the plains must, however be done upon horseback.

  The use of a horse in general still-hunting is a point upon which hunters differ. The truth of the matter I take to be this: Wherever a saddle-horse can be used to carry you to and from your hunting- ground, to carry you from one point of it to another and at the same time carry your game out, by all means use one. For even then you will have all the walking necessary for exercise, etc. And in general, the more you can ride the more you can walk.

  But whether it will be worth while to remain in the saddle while hunting is a vastly different matter. In hunting antelope so much ground has often to be traversed that a horse is almost a necessity. So sometimes with deer upon prairie and other open ground of that nature. In such cases most hunters remain in the saddle until they catch first sight of the game. Then they dismount and proceed as is usual when hunting upon foot.

  But others remain on horseback all the time and shoot from the saddle or jump off and shoot quickly. And this is what is really meant by hunting on horse- back. Whether it is ever expedient to hunt antelope in this way may be doubted. The shots are generally so long that a horse would have to actually hold his breath to allow you to take a fine enough aim. And even by jumping off to shoot you would gain but little if antelope were very wild, as a long running shot would be about all you would get.

  It is now as hard to find antelope that do not know exactly what a man on horseback means as it is to find wild-geese that do not know what a man in a boat means. Consequently the main reliance must be in approaching them without their knowing it, or by true still-hunting or stalking. But this can hardly ever be done with a horse, which they are very sure to see or hear. All the success with a horse depends upon the assumption that the game is not so afraid of a mounted man as of one afoot. And this is now rarely the case with antelope.

  There are, however, many places where deer are not so afraid of a mounted man as of one on foot. This may result from two causes, both directly opposite. First, because they rarely or never see a mounted man. Secondly, because they never see a man in any other way and are not disturbed by horsemen.

  And first: Where deer seldom see a man on horseback there are many that will have little fear of one, and will let one ride up within easy shot, either standing up or lying down, and looking at the combination with some curiosity, but with little concern. Consequently if the ground be noisy from any cause, "or the ground be too level or brushy for still-hunting, you may do far better to both hunt and shoot on horse-back. So where a country is quite open and level enough, like prairie, you may often do better with a horse, wagon, or sleigh than you can on foot. Deer know the tread of heavy animals perfectly, and will often stand quite unconcerned about the tramp of hoofs when they would fly from a light crack of a twig.

  Secondly: Where deer are used to mounted men, but are not much disturbed by them (as in Lower California, where no one hunts, and only once in a long while a dash is made with the lasso at a deer on open ground, but where scarcely any one is ever seen on foot), this may be the best way to hunt, as you may not only get closer to deer than you could do on foot, but can traverse far more ground in a day. Deer vary, however, about this, and I have seen plenty that, though used to horsemen and not disturbed by them, were easier to approach on foot. And where they are hunted much on horseback they learn perfectly what a horse means, and will often run at the sound of hoofs without stopping to see whether there be a man on the horse or not, and this, too, when wild mustangs and cattle are ranging the hills and the deer feed among them without fear. They seem to know the different sound of the hoofs of a horse with a man on him just as well as a man can generally tell it. The only sure way to test the question whether hunting on a horse is better than on foot is to try it. And often the advantage of traversing more ground overbalances all else. If one is to go stumbling with heavy boots over noisy ground he had much better be on a horse and go as fast as he can. But if he will wear moccasins and use thorough care he can approach almost any deer or antelope much closer than he can on a horse, provided the deer has not seen him at a distance. If you cannot keep them from seeing you, as when you are on level ground, etc., then your chances will be better on a horse, unless the deer are too much hunted on horseback. When a deer sees you, you can often get closer by a dash on horseback than if on foot.

  A good hunting-horse is not the easiest thing in the world to get. It is commonly supposed that some phlegmatic old hack whose sensibilities have been blunted by a thorough course of work, starvation, and thrashing is best for this purpose. But such a horse is rarely sure of foot and is sure to be slow. When you start out hunting you naturally desire to get somewhere before dark. Such a horse is also quite as apt to be a fool as any horse is. There are plenty of old horses that never exhibit any symptoms of sensibility until you come around them with a gun.

  Far better than any such stock is a good active young horse. But he must have " horse sense;" and so must his rider. The hunting-horse needs kind and rational treatment, and above all quiet, cool, easy handling. He must not be jerked or kicked for being uneasy under fire. By such treatment, as well as by firing over his head, you can completely ruin a horse that is already quite well trained. And whipping and scolding will never make him allow a dead deer to be put on his back. He may allow it that time, but an- other time he is liable to object most seriously about the time you get it on and begin to tie it fast. He should be allowed to smell of the deer as long as he wishes, being patted meanwhile instead of scolded. Then if he does not yield, quietly blindfold him until it is firmly lashed on. If you put it on so carelessly at first that it slips and hangs on his side or under his belly, especially if he succeeds in kicking or " bucking" himself free from it, you will be apt to have trouble with him in the future.

  Sometimes a very good horse cannot resist a trifling nervousness when you raise the rifle; a nervousness not born of fear, but only of expectation. In such case you will have to dismount to make any sort of a fine shot. And you will have to do so nearly al- ways to make a very good long shot. If your horse will not stay where you leave him, have a rope thirty or forty feet long knotted into several large loops at one end, with the other end tied around his neck and then looped around his nose with a noose that cannot slip off. Carry over the horn of the saddle the set of loops, which should be so arranged as to take up nearly all the rope and come under the horse's feet when cast off. Cast them off when you jump, and you may leave your horse a long time with the certainty of finding him firmly anchored somewhere very near by, no matter how well he may understand getting away with a picket-rope. This is much better than a bayonet or other sharp picket-pin, as it takes no time to cast off the rope, is not so liable to come loose, especially in soft ground, and needs no pounding on hard ground. Holding the rope while you shoot is very unreliable as well as a little unsafe if your horse be too fearful.

Chapter XXII
Special Modes Of Hunting, The Cow Bell And Tiring Down Deer

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  As before stated, the art of still-hunting consists not in the use of tricks or artifices, but in the ready and skillful application of sound common-sense principles.

  There are, however, a few modes in which deer and antelope may be hunted that are special and approach the nature of tricks. Some of these, such as luring antelope within shot by a red flag or kicking up the foot behind one occasionally when stretched upon the ground, thus taking advantage of their curiosity, etc., have already been so fully and frequently described by other writers that for the sake of brevity I will omit them and confine myself to two modes which, so far as I can remember, have never been written about before. Though both are in fact noisy hunting, yet, being the outgeneraling of a deer by a single person, properly belong to still-hunting. The first is the use of the cow-bell.

  In many parts of our country the deer are used to the sound of the cow-bell during the spring, summer, and autumn, and wherever belled cattle run those deer that have been accustomed to seeing the cattle and hearing the bell at the same time, so as to associate the two, will be little afraid of the bell, provided they are not hunted in this way, Therefore, when the autumn leaves are dry and crackly, or the snow is stiff and noisy, or the brush is thick and high, it is well to try the cow-bell.

  Hang the bell over your shoulder so that it will sound as if on a cow, and walk along fast, never minding the noise of your feet, but keeping a very keen eye ahead. Two companions, one on each side, about one hundred to three hundred yards from you and forty to a hundred and fifty yards ahead, may often work well in brush or on snow, but on snow they must be farther out from you than on bare ground, unless it is very brushy. It is well to have a set of signals with the bell so as to tell them if you see a deer, or, if on a trail, which way it turns, etc. Deer act very differently before the bell, and it is always liable to fail, though it will often give you great success. In thick brush deer that are accustomed to belled cattle will be apt to play along before the bell about a hundred yards or so ahead, stopping to look back at it, and watching its direction so closely that they do not notice your companions on the sides. Sometimes they will stand quite unconcerned, looking at you until you get in plain open sight, so that you can get a good shot. And sometimes they will run at the first sound of it, and not let you even get sight of them. I have seen an old buck so bothered by the bell that it seemed impossible to make him run, although for five minutes I did my very best to miss him; and my fingers were so numb with cold that I could hardly load the rifle, while he stood looking at me in the utmost amazement, at only fifty yards. Every time he started to run a single jingle of the bell would make him halt and look all around. This buck was celebrated for his wildness, but no one had thought of trying a bell on him, although belled cattle had been ranging with him all summer. But with some deer this will not work at all. I was staying once at a logging- camp when a light sleet suddenly made the hunting very bad for a few days. Having noticed that many of the logging-teams wore small bells, and that deer stood around, browsed, and even lay down within sound of these, I got a bell and went after the deer. Deer were quite plenty, and the first day I jumped over a dozen single ones whose tracks I saw, and doubtless more whose tracks I did not see. But every one of these jumped out of sight. The next day I muffled the clapper of the bell so that it would sound as if very far off, and the result was the same as the day before. I afterward tried it on soft snow with no better success. The reason probably was because I went away from the road. Had I kept in it at early morning and late in the evening I might have done better, though the main trouble undoubtedly was that the moment they heard it they got up and looked, and the difference between me and a logging- team was too striking. The difference in the tread had also something to do with it. They had not been hunted with a bell before, but were exceedingly wild from being still-hunted by Indians and market-shooters. I never tried the bell on California deer, but should think it would be of little use, except where cattle wear bells; though if the ground is such that you must make a noise anyhow, it would be well to try it anywhere. And it is sometimes a good plan to put it on a horse in hunting very bushy or very rough ground,- where deer cannot see far. Some deer know the step of a man so perfectly, however, that they cannot be deceived by anything, and nothing but the utmost strategy and caution will avail. And whenever the ground will allow still walking you had better depend only upon strategy and caution in hunting all deer, and let horses, cow-bells, etc., alone.

  The other mode is tiring down a deer so that he loses his wildness so far as to allow you to get close enough for a shot. This can generally be done only upon snow so light as not to impede your walking, while it enables you to follow the trail without delay in looking for tracks. It may, however, with a very fat deer be done on some kinds of bare ground where rapid tracking is easy. I am aware that deer may be run down on a deep crusty snow by a man on snowshoes. But this is mere brutal butchery. Whenever the snow is deep enough and hard enough to do that the deer are so poor as to be almost worthless either for venison or for their hides. I refer only to tiring a deer when in good condition and when he has some chance for his life.

  Probably every one who has been much among old hunters has heard of that illustrious individual who can "run down a deer and whip him into camp with his ramrod." Like the man who "shoots from the hip as well as anybody else can from the shoulder," he is a little hard to find. You can find his cousin, his nephew, or his uncle without much difficulty, and you can find plenty of men who have seen him; but you cannot find him yourself. This admixture of what is probably sheer nonsense with what is real truth has caused many persons to disbelieve the real facts of the case.

  If a deer be chased all day by a man upon a dog- trot, or even upon a rapid walk, the deer toward evening will tire down, not so that the man can catch or strike him, or even get within a stone's throw of him; but the deer will get more and more careless, and stand longer and longer at each stopping-place, and even begin to feed, until finally the pursuer gets a pretty fair shot at him.

  I am here compelled to go outside of my own experience. I never would pay so high a price for a deer as such hunting involves, and consequently never tried it. But I have time and again met Indians in the woods following a trail on a dog-trot, and talked with them about it. And I have known friends of mine stopping at the same camp at which I was stopping try the same thing. There was always a pretty general agreement about two things:

 

  1.st That a deer may often be shot in this way, but that in general it will take nearly an all-day tramp of at least three miles an hour, and for anything like certainty it should be at least five miles.

  2.nd. That some deer cannot be overtaken in this way in one day; but the pursuer must camp on the track and take it again in the morning, or must return to it if he goes off to camp. The second day, it is said, is quite sure to end the chase; but often the first day will not. I once knew two men who were most tireless trampers try it for three successive days on only an inch of snow that had been stiffened by a thaw, and give it up. They had to take different deer every day, as they left the trail each night so far from camp that they thought their chances better with a new one.

 

  On the whole, this is a mode of hunting suitable only for a man of great endurance who cares not how soon he works out the mine of youth and health; and even such a one had better let it alone unless the ground be too noisy to still-hunt and he must have a deer.

  How far this plan would work with antelope if followed on horseback I cannot say. All the antelope it has been my lot to meet were very wild, made nearly half a day's journey at the first run, and would probably have completed the day with another run if I had been foolish enough to follow them. They have far more endurance than a deer.

  All such modes of hunting as watching water-holes, salt-licks, turnip-patches, pine-choppings, etc., although literally still-hunting, I pass over as involving neither knowledge nor skill, except to keep still, hide in a tree or in a hole in the ground, or lie flat on the leeward side to see the deer when it comes, and avoid overshooting it; a thing we will consider under the head of shooting.