HIS DEATH. 127 



a halter might with facility have been placed about his neck. 

 A bullet that I sent through his head, soon put a period to 

 his miseries and his life. 



We now got up a fire, and set to work flaying and dis- 

 membering the deer, which occupied a considerable time. 

 Subsequently, and as a protection from the wolves and 

 the weather, we placed the skin and the meat en cache, 

 and then made our way to the nearest habitation, distant 

 several miles, where we arrived two or three hours after 

 dark ; and though bivouacing is all very well in its way, I 

 was not sorry, I must confess, after the fatigue we had under- 

 gone, to turn into something like a bed, and to have the 

 shelter of a friendly roof. 



During the rutting season, as said, the elk is somewhat 

 savage, and occasionally attacks people. When chased at 

 other seasons of the year he has also been known to turn 

 on his pursuers. 



During the winter of 1850-1 and the incident occurred 

 in the immediate vicinity of where I was then sojourning 

 a Dalecarlian Chasseur was in great jeopardy from an elk. 

 In company with two other persons, he had long pursued a 

 huge male, which tired out by the length of the chase, and 

 the great depth of snow, finally betook himself to Glynn- 

 sjon, a fine lake in Western D,alecarlia, then firmly frozen 

 over, where the men for the first time viewed the animal. 

 From the ice being but thinly coated with snow, the elk 

 was here enabled to go at his own pace, and consequently 

 had the best of his pursuers; and finding this to be the 

 case, he doubled backwards and forwards on the lake, and 

 would not for a long time leave the vantage-ground. During 

 this time the party, which from some cause or other only 



