THE GOOJUR'S BLACK STAG. 221 



of the silver birch-trees standing here and there like white 

 spectres in the gloomy cloisters of the pine-forest that 

 begirt the pool. Sometimes our flagging hopes would be 

 raised as the far-off bellowing of a stag was intermittently 

 borne towards us on the night breeze that gently rocked 

 the pine-tops, but only again to sink with the sound as it 

 gradually died away in the distance. This was all very 

 romantic and exciting, until towards morning I grew so 

 sleepy that I could no longer keep my eyes or ears open. 

 And when, at grey frosty dawn, we returned, chilled and 

 disappointed, from our night vigils, all my ideas of their 

 romance had evaporated. 



For the next two days we hunted unsuccessfully, my 

 only chance being at an old black bear, into which I one 

 evening put a bullet, as he stood up on his hind-legs eating 

 berries off a bush. He dropped quantities of blood, but as 

 his trail led up through thick cover, and darkness was 

 growing apace, we did not think it either prudent or worth 

 our while to follow him far. The fresh-fallen snow, which 

 now lay several inches deep on the open slopes above the 

 forest, had evidently driven the deer lower down ; so we 

 moved our camp to the locality where I had shot my first 

 hangul, and for which I had a lingering fancy. If the 

 reader is not already quite tired of following me so often 

 through the forest after stags, perhaps he will accompany 

 me, just once more, in pursuit of one of the grandest of 

 them all. 



As we were setting up our camp, an old goojur (herds- 

 man), who was grazing his beasts in the neighbouring woods, 

 volunteered us the information that a very black-looking 

 and big-horned hangul, which for several years had been 

 known to visit this locality late in the rutting season, had, 

 during the last few days, been several times seen about the 

 head of the wooded glen in which he was then herding his 

 cattle. As it was still early in the day, we decided upon 

 at once proceeding in quest of this famous beast. We had 



