TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 263 



I shot, as it was on two or three other moose bagged 

 by members of our party. My beast, being a mature 

 animal, had the adornment in so bedraggled and hair- 

 less a condition that the appendage ceased to be a 

 thing of beauty and became a mere bit of loose skin. 

 We measured the bell of a younger moose which 

 Cecily shot, and it came out at fourteen inches long, 

 and the hair was very coarse, anl shaded from brown 

 to grey black. 



Steve set about taking the head-skin, which was 

 going to be such a lengthy business we persuaded him 

 to decapitate the great deer and struggle to camp with 

 the whole head. He wanted some of the meat, but 

 couldn't manage to carry more than he was already 

 burdened with, so we comforted him by saying he 

 could return for another load to-morrow. We helped 

 to carry the weighty head by tying it on to a stalwart 

 tree stem, taking one end, the man the other, and the 

 great trophy swung in the centre. On the walk home 

 the weather broke suddenly, and drizzling rain fell, 

 which was the precursor of a storm which raged all 

 night. A terrifying affair enough, and as the tearing 

 wind whistled through the forest I couldn't help think- 

 ing what a chance there was of our being flattened out 

 by some tree going down before the wrath of the 

 tempest. All around us the branches crashed to the 

 earth, the tents were blown this way and that, and 

 our occupation during the midnight hours was to 

 hang on to our canvas residences that we might have 

 them for another night. With the morning the fury 

 of the gale had passed, but it took us some little time 



