REGULAR STALKS IMPOSSIBLE 209

Generally speaking, the weight of a mainland buck, when
five years old and in good condition, would run to about
one hundred and seventy-five pounds.

The horns of the Columbian deer are the smallest
carried by any of our deer, and though they are pretty
little things, the best of them would not rank very high
as a trophy. A good set might have four or five points
on each top with a two-inch spike at the base. A length
of eighteen inches would be about the limit.

The Columbian deer is comparatively solitary in its
habits, and apart from does with fawns, of which they have
as many as three, you seldom find more than two together,
except in early spring when small bunches may congregate
along the sea-shore or bank of some stream in quest of
the early grass that grows in such places.

Their “‘ rutting’ season seems to be more varied than
that of other deer, though the middle of November can be
taken as the regular period for it to commence.

Fat bucks—which are by no means common close to
salt water—make most excellent venison until the
‘rutting ’’ season is in full swing, when some of them
become uneatable, but as far as sport is concerned they
are not of very much value. Such a thing as stalking
them is seldom possible ; you just prowl about in likely
places and trust to luck to guide you to one that is not
in an impossible thicket. They are essentially an animal
of the woods, where your range of vision is usually limited
to fifty yards, or a hundred at the most. In fine weather,
when it is pleasant to be in the woods, your best time to
find one is very early in the morning or towards evening,
but if it happens that there is a moon at night your chances
are considerably lessened. On a stormy day, after a wet,
dark night, if you do not mind poking about in soaking
wet brush, getting wet to the skin and beastly cold, you
are far more apt to find the deer out feeding. But even
then, when you do sight one, the odds are it will not be
in plain enough view for you to distinguish its sex or, if
by chance you can do so, to decide whether the horns
are large or small; if you take time to make a careful