FINISH 



66 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



was inflicted, the movements being so rapid and the light too 

 indistinct. It appeared to me, however, that the weaker stag, 

 on regaining his feet first, made a dash at his foe, but from 

 some cause or other his lunge missed its aim and, while the 

 impetus carried him past his still kneeling adversary, his 

 whole flank was exposed to the thrust of the latter's horns. 

 The next second he was down, too, but this time with a heavy 

 thud, stretched out at full length, just out of reach of the kneel- 

 ing victor, who, too exhausted to rise, kept butting at the body 

 which he could not reach. A minute later they were both up 

 again, but the battle was decided, and the wounded hart fled 

 into the forest, where I found him next morning dead, with a 

 ghastly slash two feet in length that had ripped open his side 

 and penetrated his vitals." 



THE There may be another finish to the combat — a finish that 



is even more final. The knights have clashed together, the 

 strong and springy antlers have yielded a little under shock 

 of onset, but sprung together locked — locked so firmly that now 

 there is no fencing, nothing but pushing and wrestling. It is 

 as if each held the sword-wrist of his foe in a riveted clutch, 

 and when at length one of the wrestlers would spring back to 

 avoid defeat or for a better thrust, he finds himself absolutely 

 bound to his foe, with antlers intertwined. Try as he may, he 

 cannot wrench them free. Strong and weak alike are now 

 face to face with a lingering death. Many a time have two 

 carcasses been seen thus antler-bound. Several times White- 

 tailed Deer have been found thus — one still alive, the other 

 dead a day or two, the stronger just able to drag his fallen foe 

 enough so he could gather a little food, that could but prolong 

 his misery. More than once the first to die has been partly 

 eaten by Wolves, which the other feebly struggled to avoid. A 

 score of times I have seen the remains of this among the smaller 

 Deer, but only once have I found it among the Wapiti. 



It is years ago now, at the Palette Ranch, on the head- 

 waters of the Greybull, where choicest elk-lands sloped to 

 buffalo-plains, in a little valley where it all befell, I saw the 



