284 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



and accordingly I resumed my chase of the single bull. 

 He walked for certainly three miles before he again 

 halted, and I was then half a mile behind him. On this 

 occasion he struck a small belt of woodland and began 

 to travel to and fro through it, probably with an idea of 

 lying down. I was able to get up fairly close by crawl- 

 ing on all-fours through the snow for part of the distance; 

 but just as I was about to fire he moved slightly, and 

 though my shot hit him, it went a little too far back. 

 He plunged over the hill crest and was off at a gallop, 

 and after running forward and failing to overtake him in 

 the first rush, I sat down to consider matters. The snow 

 had begun to melt under the sun, and my knees and the 

 lower parts of my sleeves were wet from my crawl, and I 

 was tired and hungry and very angry at having failed to 

 kill the wapiti. It was, however, early in the afternoon, 

 and I thought that if I let the wapiti alone for an hour, 

 he would lie down, and then grow stiff and reluctant to 

 get up ; while in the snow I was sure I could easily follow 

 his tracks. Therefore I ate my lunch, and then swal- 

 lowed some mouthfuls of snow in lieu of drinking. 



An hour afterward I took the trail. It was evident 

 the bull was hard hit, but even after he had changed his 

 plunging gallop for a trot he showed no signs of stop- 

 ping; fortunately his trail did not cross any other. The 

 blood signs grew infrequent, and two or three times he 

 went up places which made it difficult for me to believe 

 he was much hurt. At last, however, I came to where 

 he had lain down ; but he had risen again and gone for- 

 ward. For a moment I feared that my approach had 



