A FALL HUNTING TRIP. 99 



time he was moving slowly on, passing behind a small 

 group of five or six bare junipers, and we could see him 

 nuzzling in the deep reindeer moss, his great antlers 

 swaying up and down. He next partially turned away 

 from us, and we took the opportunity of creeping into 

 a depression at the foot of the hummock on which the 

 stones lay and, pausing behind a small bank of moss, 

 took another look at him through the telescope. Owing 

 to his position it was still impossible to distinguish 

 much beyond the fact that his horns were exceedingly 

 heavy, but even on that count alone there could be no 

 question about its being a grand head. He was now 

 feeding on a mound encircled by a depression, much as 

 a saucer surrounds a cup. We made our way along 

 this depression and then upwards to a boulder within 

 one hundred and twenty yards of a spot he must pass, 

 and there we waited. Presently the big stag finished 

 his nuzzling in the moss and slowly walked out into fiill 

 view. I could perfectly see his head now, with its 

 heavy, wide-spread horns, the one clubbed top and the 

 other top with its five points. 



He was right above us, and at the shot from the 

 Mannlicher he walked two or three paces forward and 

 crashed down, rolling over. We at once ran up the 

 hill, and found the bullet had entered under his chest, 

 coming out through his back. I had known all the 

 time that he was an uncommonly good stag, but I was 

 not prepared for the weight of horn resting upon the 

 moss. He carried thirty-five large points, but the 

 antlers, which were extraordinarily wide and heavy, 

 were uneven, the right being clubbed, as I have said. 

 He was undoubtedly an old stag, and was certainly 

 going back in the perfection of his horns. 



H 2 



