A SPREAD OF FORTY-NINE INCHES. 45 



eddy of wind should betray our proximity, and 

 as soon as I could get a clear view of tlie front 

 part of its body through the trees I fired. Just 

 at that moment it was in a dip of the ground, 

 so that its legs and part of its body were hidden 

 from view, and my bullet struck it rather high 

 behind the shoulder, but this shot would cer- 

 tainly have proved fatal, as it pierced both 

 lungs below the backbone. Lnmediately I had 

 fired, I ran in, pushing another cartridge into 

 the breach of my single-shot rifle as I did so. 



The ground here rose rather steeply from 

 the lake, and the wounded moose went straight 

 up hill, iDut after going some twenty yards, 

 stopped and, turning broadside, looked back, 

 giving me a splendid second chance, of Avhich 

 I was not slow to take advantage. At this 

 second shot, which pierced its heart, the giant 

 deer gave a spasmodic plunge forward, and 

 then rolled over dead. 



I was mightily pleased to have at last shot 

 a fairly good specimen of a bull moose. George 

 pronoimced it to be five years old. Its horns 

 had a spread of forty-nine inches, and carried 



