116 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



a Henry-rifled barrel, had done its deadly work. 

 A second bullet in the chest, a stagger and a fall, 

 and my first bull elk, a forty-inch thirteen-pointer, 

 lies dead. He was my old friend of the first day, 

 as the fresh thigh wound, plainly made by a *500 bore 

 bullet, that had just missed the ham-bone, showed. 



We returned home that night in a most cheerful 

 frame of mind, and the whisky-punch, at a subse- 

 quent stage of the proceedings, possessed a distinctly 

 more satisfying flavour. 



It required the combined efforts of two horses and 

 six men for eight hours to bring the elk home four 

 miles on a sleigh next day, accompanied by an 

 admiring crowd of the valley population. We 

 estimated his weight (clean) at over 1,500 pounds. 

 I took his measurements as follows : 



Height at shoulder - - 6 feet 6 inches. 



Length along spine from between 



horns to end of tail - - 8 feet. 



Length along spine from nose to tail 10 feet. 



Girth behind shoulder - - 7 feet 2 inches. 



Spread of horns, from tip to tip - 3 feet 4 inches. 



Points - - - 13. 



The following day our lucky star was again in the 

 ascendant. Although we did not start early or work 

 hard, all went well. The morning was spent in fishing 

 a lake bosomed in the dark spruce-forest about two 

 miles from the house. Above it was a steep and 

 thickly-wooded hill, of which more anon. Ivor knew 

 little or nothing of fly fishing, and watched with 

 sceptical curiosity as I sat on the edge of the lake 

 putting up a cast. The day was calm, and not a fish 

 was moving. It did not look promising for a bag ; 

 but, as luck would have it, throwing into the water 



