The herald., 1897-10-03
THAT SMART Old BUCK
We read occasionally of some smart
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We read occasionally Of some smart
old buck that for many years has evaded
the best hunters and the surest shots.
and the story Is generally true. The deer
Is the shrewdest Of his class, and even
in a wel-settled country defies for years
the hunters. His eyes, ears and nose are
far superior to those of the moose and
elk His eyes, to detect motion, are
In no way inferior to those Of the ante
lope, except at great distance; while
his ears and nose seem better than those
of his swift cousin of the plains. One
of these old chaps is the most desirable
of all game to those who love hunting
for the skill it requires rather than the
eze of the game. and many Will do al
most anything for shot at one of them.
Some twenty years ago there was one
of these old bucks on Mount Palomar,
in San Diego county, of such extraordi-
nary size that he was supposed to be of
O. different race from the common mule
deer of the country. Though his range
was not over two miles square, on the
top of the mountain, about 5000 feet
above the sea- he had baffled the hunters
for years. and bothered me about as
much as any game l had ever hunted.
He loved thick brush, and seemed to
move only at night. His tracks could
always be found, but the ground was
such that few cared 10 follow them.
One day, when camping there, found
his fresh track early in the morning, and
concluded to track him. cost what it
might in time and patience for tracking
was our only chance. My companion
concurred. and we undertook what many
think impossible, but which is not so
c,,I +,;o1 7,
eyes In good training and know the daily
movements of the deer quite we'll.
The buck had stepped from the edge
of a little creek upon ground so dry
hard and covered with dead grass, weeds
and brush that too much time would be
lost in following through it. Here comes
one of the first points Of tracking-to
know when to leave the trail where it is
too difficult to follow, and how and
where to pick it quickly up again. AS
the deer had been at water and started
I'D hill it was quite certain that he would
continue up hill at this time of day. for
awhile, at laest, so instead of looking
for anything nearby my eye ranged
over the slope beyond. Some green grass
and weeds covered the ground some fifty
yards away, and l detected thin strip
of green of lighter shade than that of the
main body of green. The lighter color
of the strip showed that the blades of
grass were bent away from us, for had
they been bent toward us they would
have been of darker shade. So We
skipped the fifty yards of trail and went
at once to that point.
We looked for no tracks IN the grass
but went on for some fifty yards in a
line with the strip of lighter shade in
the grass and the hoof prints at the
creek. Here the ground was dry and
red with the ragged arms of the man
zanita rising ten or twelve feet in places
and the ground between partly covered
with dead weeds and foX-tail grass of
golden hue. Here on a spot of dry
ground We found a sharp-toed depres-
sion, like that made by the point of a
f1atiron, but which an eye unframed to
tracking would hardly have seen. 1t
was pointed uphill, so we skipped the
hext fifty yards or SO of the trail, be-
cause 1t was not worth while following
IA, closely. The buck did not go up hill
40 late in the morning, from water, too,