ON THE MAMMALIA OF THIS DISTRICT. 209 



and cut the bark off a fir-tree a few inches from 

 his head. However, this appeared to be regarded 

 by the foresters as a very trivial circumstance ; 

 and had 1 killed the man I am confident that if a 

 jury had been impanelled on the spot, the verdict 

 would have been " served him right/' Upon ex- 

 amining the dead elk, it seemed that two balls 

 from the first shots had entered his loins, without, 

 however, touching a vital part, and but for my 

 second shot, he would probably have gone away 

 as strong as ever. By his horns he seemed about 

 fi\v years old, but smaller than the one we had 

 already killed. 



Now the elk was down, the next question was, 

 how to get him out of the forest, for it was im- 

 possible for a sledge with horses to reach the spot 

 where he lay. We were just one mile from the 

 nearest lake into which the little trout-stream ran, 

 and it was decided that he must be carried there 

 and rowed across in a boat. This certainly did 

 not appear an easy task, looking at the huge car- 

 case that lay on the ground; nothing, however, 

 is too hot or too heavy for these peasants, if you 

 only give them time. Two young fir-trees were 

 soon cut down, and trimmed up for bearing-poles ; 

 while the beaters cut a lot of long willow twigs, 

 and, twisting them round and round till they were 

 as pliant as cord, a sort of net- work palanquin 



