WAPITI, ROEBUCK, AND GORAL 237 



temptation, so I fired; but the bullet went to pieces in 

 the twigs and never reached its mark. Harry saw the 

 deer go over the hill and ran around the base of a rocky 

 shoulder just in time to intercept three wapiti which 

 my shot had started down the ravine. He dropped be- 

 hind a bowlder and let a cow and a calf pass within a 

 few yards of him, for he saw the antlers of a bull rock- 

 ing along just behind a tiny ridge. As the animal came 

 into view he sent a bullet into his shoulder, and a sec- 

 ond ball a few inches behind the first. The elk went 

 down but got to his feet again, and Harry put him 

 under for good with a third shot in the hip. 



Looking up he saw another bull, alone, emerging 

 from a patch of cover on the summit of the opposite 

 slope four hundred yards away. He fired point-blank, 

 but the range was a bit too long and his bullet kicked 

 up a cloud of snow under the animal's belly. 



I was entirely out of the race on the summit of the 

 hill, for the nearest wapiti was fully eight hundred yards 

 away. Harry's bull was somewhat smaller than the 

 first one we had killed, but had an even more beautiful 

 coat. 



We were pretty well exhausted from the week's 

 strenuous climbing and spent Sunday resting and look- 

 ing after the small mammal work which our Chinese 

 taxidermists had been carrying on under my direc- 

 tion. 



Monday morning we were on the hunting grounds 

 shortly after sunrise. At the first drive a beautiful 

 buck roe deer ran out of a ravine into the main valley 



