190 SHORT STALKS 



who was my companion for the day, was violently excited, 

 and I had to hold him into the boat with one hand lest he 

 should jump overboard and be drowned by his chain, while 

 with the other I crammed bullet cartridges into my gun. 

 The elk had about two hundred and fifty yards to swim, and 

 I assumed that we should overhaul him with ease. The elk 

 is, however, one of the finest of swimmers, and readily takes 

 to the water, even when not pursued. This one, the moment 

 he realised that it was a race for life, put on a spurt which 

 astonished me. Every stroke drove his great head and 

 shoulders far out of the water, which seemed to hiss past 

 him as he pounded through it like an ocean steamer. By 

 the time he was halfway across I saw that the race was a 

 hopeless one as far as I was concerned, and that it was 

 now or never if I was going to shoot at all. The mark 

 which he offered was so large that I made pretty sure of 

 hitting it at the eighty or ninety yards' distance which he 

 had now put between ns. I stood np to shoot, and the 

 shot looked easy, but these light " prams," as they call the 

 lake boats, are far from steady, and at this point we felt 

 the full force of the south wind which blew up a five-mile 

 reach, and drove big waves before it into the narrow 

 sound. The boat rolled and swayed witli it, and the 

 mnzzle of my rifle dipped and rose like the yard-arm of a 

 ship, now pointing at the sky and now at the water. In 

 vain I tried to steady myself. My first bullet skimmed 

 just over his neck, my second must have been A^ery near, 

 judging by the spasmodic bound he gave, jerking his body 

 half out of the w^ater. Before I could load ao-ain he touched 

 terra Jirma, and in a cloud of spray raced ashore. I just 

 got in my cartridges in time to give him a parting double. 



