146 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



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wind, whereupon it becomes scarcely less certain that there 

 no deer within a reasonable distance ahead, and that one must 

 strike into fresh country to find them. When there are no elk 

 about, I have seen this hound very keen, although quiet, on the 

 scent of fox or marten-cat, which few dogs can resist ; but in the 

 vicmity of the nobler game he always pays the strictest attention 

 to business, and it is impossible to misunderstand him : quite 

 mute with his mouth, he speaks eloquently with the whole of his 

 body. Some dogs are very untrustworthy, and cause infinite 

 trouble and annoyance by working as impetuously up to the 

 signs of fox or marten, or even capercailzie, as they will to elk 

 spoor. In approaching elk with the stalking dog, before they 

 are actually sighted— when his occupation is, of course, for the 

 moment gone — care should be taken not to advance in too 

 direct a line up wind ; the dog should be pulled off now and 

 then to right or left, as the case may require, to guard against 

 any lateral movement on the part of the deer. It will be found 

 that when thus pulled off, the hound will be always trying to 

 swing round and face the wind again, and his movements in this 

 way will, if carefully watched, afford a tolerably sure indication 

 of the actual or quite recent position of the quarry. Any emi- 

 nence in the right line should be ascended, and the ground in 

 front surveyed from just below its crest ; and as elk have a habit 

 of turning abruptly and lying down, or moving to leeward of their 

 former track, every yard of ground on either side must be made 

 as safe as is possible under the circumstances. Elk can, of 

 course, be approached either on the line of their spoor or by 

 the wind alone, in case they have come from the opposite direc- 

 tion, and have not traversed the ground over which the advance 

 is made. 



When the hunter is sure that he is close upon the elk 

 and is cautiously ascending a rise for the purpose of ex- 

 amining the country beyond and at his feet, including the 

 opposite slope of the rise itself, there is considerable art in 

 making safe each successive inch — which of course represents 

 according to distance several or many yards — of the fresh ground 



