64 STALKING A WAPITI. 



scried in the distance a living object, which, on closer 

 examination, turned out to be a wapiti ; and as I 

 wanted venison (yet did not care about alarming the 

 camp by shooting the game in the neighbourhood) I 

 determined to stalk this one. As the wind did not 

 quite favour, I made a detour of several hundred 

 yards, and at length reached the desired position for 

 an advance up-wind. From the intervening ground 

 being sufficiently irregular to favour my purpose, I 

 got without difficulty within shooting distance, the 

 facility with which I had made my approach asto- 

 nishing me. A well-delivered shot terminated my 

 labour, the deer dropping where it stood. On 

 examination it turned out to be very low in flesh, 

 and suffering from an ugly, unhealthy -looking wound 

 across the hock. Its isolated position was thus ac- 

 counted for ; the injured limb preventing its re- 

 maining with its fleet-footed comrades. 



The injury this animal was suffering from was, in 

 my belief, caused by the canine tooth of a wolf ; and 

 if so, what a narrow escape it must have had, when 

 the ferocious assailant was sufficiently close to leave 

 upon his victim the impression of his tusks ! So we 

 see there are sometimes nearer slips between the cup 

 and the lip, than that of a fox obtaining only the long 

 feathers of a pheasant's tail, instead of the bird itself. 



Occasionally in life we enjoy the most pleasurable 

 sensations, not unfrecjuentry produced by very slight 

 causes. To-day, when returning home, fatigued from 

 protracted exercise and disgusted from want of 



