342 STORTING ADVENTURES IN TEE FAR WEST. 



for the sport which promised so much buoyant, virile pleas- 

 ure. Our party was composed of five persons, including 

 an orderly, who had charge of half a dozen hounds, and a 

 French half-breed, who acted as guide. In the course of 

 half an hour after leaving camp we were in the midst of 

 a dense forest of those gigantic firs for which the North- 

 west is famous, and a few moments later the dogs were set 

 to work on a fresh trail. They soon gave tongue, and their 

 melodious tones rang through the silent woods with a clear- 

 ness I had never before heard equalled. This was the sig- 

 nal for a scurrying race to get to some convenient points 

 in order to have a shot. The guide placed me on a prom- 

 ising run-way, and I had scarcely taken my position ere a 

 magnificent black-tailed stag ( G. columbianus) broke cover 

 not twenty paces from me. His head was high in the air, 

 and his antlers were thrown back, so that he appeared in his 

 most majestic mien. I gave him a low whistle ; he halted 

 to learn its import, and ere he could decide upon moving 

 I planted a load of buckshot in his neck and shoulders. 

 Before I could give him the second barrel he was bound- 

 ing through the shrubbery with those long, high jumps for 

 which he is noted, and the last I saw of him was an erect 

 cauda clearing the branches of a fallen tree. I was of 

 course much piqued at my bad shooting, and still more so 

 when I was I'ejoined by my companions, who commenced 

 chaffing me most unmercifully, and predicted that we should 

 have no luck that day, as I had missed the first deer. The 

 feeling of chagrin was bad enough; but to be taunted 

 good-naturedly with spoiling the day's amusement was the 

 acme of depressing pride. I insisted that I had wounded 

 the animal so seriously that it could not run very far ; but 

 this only elicited a sarcastic laugh, and the query if I did 

 not think I ought to challenge certain redoubted hunters 

 to engage in a week's contest to test superiority. My vic- 

 tory soon came, however; for the guide, who was sound- 

 ing a mellow cow's horn to recall the pack, reported that 

 they must have overtaken the quarry, or they would have 

 returned in answer to his peremptory summons. This in- 



