ON THE MAMMALIA OF THIS DISTRICT. 187 



a few seconds, rocking to and fro, with her head 

 turned to me ; when at length recovering herself, 

 she struggled into the deep forest, and I saw her 

 no more. It appears that she came within thirty 

 yards of the stand next to me, and gave a fair 

 broadside to my friend with the double. He was 

 rather near-sighted, and at first could not make 

 out whether it was a cow or an elk, and, when he 

 had made out, was too excited to take a steady 

 aim; and this accounts for his ball whistling so 

 close past me. But the most singular part of the 

 affair is, after he fired, the elk stood stock still ; 

 and, according to his own account, forgetting that 

 he had a double gun, he proceeded to load again, 

 but, finding out his mistake, he fired his second 

 shot, when the elk made off. It was evident, 

 however, she was hard hit, for we soon found 

 blood on her " spoor," and when the beaters 

 came up we commenced a trail hunt. But " a 

 stern chase is a long chase; " and so it proved in our 

 case. We started on the trail about nine in the 

 morning, and followed it till six in the evening, 

 when we lost it in a swamp intersected with fresh 

 footmarks in every direction. It was beautiful to 

 watch the foresters follow this trail. It reminded 

 me exactly of a lot of hounds picking up a dead 

 scent on a grassy fallow. We could hit it off 

 pretty well at first ; but the swamps beat us, for 



