dently separated into two or more lots, and I
followed the eight turkeys for many miles and for many hours without
seeing fresh sign, until at length I came to the edge of a precipitous
cliff overlooking a wide part of the valley, the river flowing just
below me, and a large grove of big cottonwood-trees in a bottom not far
away.

Evidently I was at the place from which the turkeys had flown off the
night before to go to roost. I quickly descended, and, going under the
cottonwood-trees, searched in the tangle and jungle for sign of their
having roosted above, and soon satisfied myself that they had done so.
The next step necessary was to discover where the turkeys had alighted
in the morning; but this might entail a long search, and, as it was
already past noon, I sat down to rest, eat the luncheon I had provided
myself with, and come to some conclusion as to which direction I had
best choose to make my first cast in.

I had not proceeded far on my way again, when I came suddenly upon a
"sign" that arrested my attention and raised hope in my breast,--the
tracks of a big fat buck! He had crossed the river-bottom diagonally,
and his trail plainly told me all about him: the great width of and the
distance between his tracks proclaimed his sex and size, and their depth
in the ground his weight. He had been going at an easy trot; the glaze
on them was bright, their edges unbroken; not a speck of drifted dust
was on them; they were as fresh as new paint. They were not an hour old.

In imagination I smelt roasted venison, and instantly started in
pursuit. I followed on the tracks until within an hour of sunset, but
never got even a glimpse of the deer; and by that time his trail had
brought me to the bank of a stream flowing down one of the side valleys.
The buck browsing here and there, but never stopping long in one place,
had led me a wide circuit through and over valley and ridges. He had not
seen or smelled me, however, since none of his movements showed that he
had been alarmed.

The stream, at the place where the deer's track led to it, was unusually
wide, consequently slack in current, and therefore frozen over. The snow
still lay on the ice, and the buck's track, where he had crossed, looked
but just made. The ice seemed firm, and I started to cross the creek.
About ten feet from shore, bang through I went, waist deep, into the
cold water, and broke and scrambled my way back with great difficulty,
and with noise e