314 SPORTING ADVENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



their heads to survey their surroundings, and that some 

 one of them was always peering about. While watching 

 them with keen interest, they made a sudden plunge into 

 the water, and swam rapidly toward us ; and, on looking 

 for the cause of their unexpected alarm, we saw a young 

 stag struggling bravely against a dozen or more wolves; 

 but as his hamstring was evidently cut by the cunning 

 prowlers, he could do nothing more than use his horns vig- 

 orously, while they harassed him on every side. 



The poor fellow was snorting and plunging and scatter- 

 ing the leaves and fallen branches about, in his mad efforts 

 to escape ; but, before we could learn his fate, our attention 

 was attracted to the animals approaching us. When they 

 reached to within a few yards of the bank, we fired at them 

 in rapid succession ; but we killed only two, the remainder 

 escaping by swimming toward another portion of the bank. 

 I have found it rather a difficult matter to shoot deer in 

 the water when they were moving from me, as only a small 

 portion of the skull is seen ; hence, though we fired at 

 them several times, I doubt if we hit one severely enough 

 to cripple it. The two in the lake were pulled ashore by 

 my friend, who dragged them after him one by one until 

 they were in water so shallow that we could both pull 

 them on terra fir ma together. 



When they were landed, which required no small effort 

 to accomplish, we turned our attention to the wolves, and 

 ran as fast as we could around the lake in their direction. 

 When we reached to within one or two hundred yards of 

 them we halted to watch their actions, and to get a shot at 

 them if possible. A momentary glance revealed to us the 

 fact that they were fighting and snarling over the slain an- 

 imal ; but we could see nothing of it, so closely were they 

 grouped about it. We therefore concluded that we might 

 bag one or two, owing to their heedlessness to all things 

 but the feast they were enjoying ; so we advanced toward 

 them as stealthily as possible, and got to within fifty yards 

 of them before we were detected. 



They showed little fear of us, however, for .they did not 



