ELK HUNTING 



bays took place. Mostly wrong as to locality,' for 

 the pack is all in, and had not bayed their elk during 

 the whole run. One thing, however, is quite certain, and 

 which every one is agreed about, and that is, that the stag 

 has beaten us. 



I have known the reverse occur more than once when 

 a hind has turned the tables on a stag, but I must confess 

 the latter is far oftener the culprit in this respect. 



There is no limit, too, to their cunning dodges in water 

 as well as on land. 



I take from my hunting diary of 1894 the following 

 incident. We ran a fine stag from the Aldie Patnas to 

 the Horton Plains. 



We got through by an old elephant path I had opened 

 out, at the top of the big Gallagamma Falls, and turning 

 left-handed on reaching the Plains, we met the stag swim- 

 ming down stream in a deep shady pool. Without stop- 

 ping, for he was in 10 feet of water, he dived " all" under " 

 twice, and then stood under a steep bank in dense shadow. 

 He stood exactly opposite to where we lay in long grass 

 fully ten to fifteen minutes. The colour of his hide so 

 exactly resembled the dark flood-swept sides of the pool 

 that he was almost invisible- and he seemed to know it. 

 Higher up stream we could hear hounds coming towards 

 us, and as they got closer we could see the stag curl his 

 upper lip, as I have often seen them do when at bay. 



We had seizers with us, but not one of them had seen 

 him, so motionless did he stand. At last he moved his 

 head. Rip, one of the lurchers, saw him and immediately 

 bayed him, but he stood perfectly still looking at us 

 all, men and hounds, now standing 10 feet above him 

 on the bank. Hounds came round the bend of the 

 stream, swimming into the pool like a pack of otter 



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