82 RECENT HUNTING TRIPS. 



inevitably have seen ns at the same time. 

 However, he failed to do so, and came 

 mooning along through the dead and leafless 

 tree stems, evidently with a mind so much at 

 ease that he had not the least suspicion 

 that danger and death might be lurking very 

 near him. 



I could not at once fire, as the burnt forest 

 through which he was slowly moving was very 

 thick, so I waited for him to advance into more 

 open ground. 



I must say he looked a splendid animal, his 

 snow-white neck, with a shaggy fringe of 

 hair depending from the throat, showing up 

 in striking contrast with his grey-brown body 

 and dark face ; whilst the red-bro\\Ti palmated 

 antlers when viewed from one side looked 

 like some curious spiky growth of wood. He 

 soon got into a little more open ground and 

 gave me a very easy broadside shot at about 

 eighty yards, so I put a bullet through his 

 lungs, which killed him very quickly. 



My prize was evidently an animal in his prime. 

 Unfortunately, only one brow tine was broadly 



