THE SCANDINAVIAN ELK 151 



with him. As however I guessed what he was after, there was 

 no need to ask questions, but simply to ' keep wiring away.' 



In about five-and-twenty minutes we reached the top of the 

 ridge, which was quite open and mattressed with thick moss, on 

 which we lay down. We are not given to talking much during 

 the chase, and for ten minutes did not say a word. My busi- 

 ness was to recover my wind for shooting, and I was content 

 to leave the rest to the Lapp and Passop. I found that we 

 were on the brink of a little cliff, perhaps eighty feet high, im- 

 mediately under which was a fairly level terrace about a hundred 

 yards broad and covered with birch-trees and brushwood, with 

 a few Scotch firs at intervals ; beyond this the ground dropped 

 rather suddenly to the distant landscape. I had forgotten all 

 about my rapid climb when the Lapp gently pressed my elbow 

 and pointed to the left, and in a few seconds I saw the horns 

 and broad back of a bull elk surge up amongst the brushwood. 

 He was walking behind a very small cow who preceded him 

 by five yards or so ; we had got well ahead of them, and they 

 were now approaching us down wind and without the slightest 

 suspicion. The cow gave the line to the bull just along the 

 edge of the bank where the terrace ended, and where the trees 

 were thickest ; by watching her I could tell where he would 

 appear a few seconds later. Fortunately, just in front of us 

 there was a clear space amongst the branches about as long as 

 an elk's body, and when the cow filled this gap I got the rifle 

 up, and as soon as the point of the bull's shoulder crossed the 

 sight pressed trigger. He fell over at once and disappeared, all 

 but one motionless horn, while the little cow danced in towards 

 the cliff until she was close under us, and then made off. We 

 found that the bullet had struck the centre of the base of the 

 neck, and the elk had died so instantaneously that his hind- 

 quarters were still hoisted up by the stem of a young birch 

 against which he had fallen under the edge of the bank. Of 

 course in this case, being fired from above, the bullet pene- 

 trated downwards, but in my experience, confirmed by that of 

 others, the neck-shot is with elk always very deadly. Even 



