304 TWO DIANAS IN ALASKA 



hundred and fifty yards away, the dripping bulk 

 walked at a slow pace, head carried low, and great 

 swelling shoulders hunched. The moose stopped and 

 shook himself vigorously, such a great prolonged 

 shake, tossing his crowned head. 



It was a shot which would have delighted the heart 

 of a child in arms. 



My cousin fired simultaneously with me, and the 

 animal staggered sideways, lurched forward, but did 

 not fall. With a great effort of strength he made for 

 the timber line. All pretence at scientific stalking 

 was abandoned, and we simply rushed after our moose 

 with the speed of Atalanta. We were using our 

 12-bores, so that tracking was easy, a heavy blood 

 trail led us through the dense forest. After a heavy 

 chase we came up with the wounded moose, very 

 sick, in a clump of alders. Out he jumped, and off he 

 went, game to the last ; but Cecily got in two success- 

 ful shots which finished the business. With a 

 gigantic leap into the air, a last expiring effort, the 

 wonderful creature fell to rise no more. 



This was our record head of the trip. No other 

 matched it in grandeur, or grace. It was a noble 

 trophy, with twenty-eight points, and a spread of 

 seventy-four inches. In the subsequent drying this 

 measurement reduced itself two inches, but enough 

 antlers remained to make our head an unusually 

 valuable, picked specimen of its genus. 



This piece of luck closed the most lucky trip, so far 

 as shooting was concerned. It was now well into 

 October, and the weather showed signs of breaking 



