46 THE OUT-STATION; OR, 



peculiarly wild and almost inaccessible lair, is one of 

 the finest sights in nature ; and it is singular that 

 an animal endowed with such strength and fleetness, 

 living in such a state of savage hardihood as the elk 

 does, and defending itself, when attacked, with such 

 determined courage and resolution, should be the last 

 animal in the jungle to act on the offensive, and the 

 first to take to flight on the approach of man. 



Taking it for granted that our first day's excursion 

 over the mountain has not entirely passed away from 

 the reader's recollection, we will once more make it 

 the scene of action, and if between us both we do 

 not bring down a noble elk (although we may go a 

 hundred times over the mountain and not see one) to 

 end its mortal career in the inglorious precincts of a 

 stew-pan, there will be numberless wild minor com- 

 modities to fill our game-bag, and to amply repay 

 if not our disappointment at least our toil. 



But we will not be disappointed this time, at all 

 events, for, although it only once fell to my good 

 fortune to bring down an elk, I will proceed to shoot 

 him over again in the companionship of the reader, 

 for his special (the reader's, not the elk's) grati- 

 fication. 



Summer or winter, there is little difference in the 

 hour that it is necessary for one to sally out in the 

 morning to enjoy the best part of the day, being that 

 one immediately preceding sunrise ; although it is by 

 no means an uncommon occurrence to be awakened 



