SPORT AND TRAVEL 179 



rifle with me, so could do nothing but watch it. Pres- 

 ently it turned and trotted off sideways, and soon 

 disappeared amongst some low scrub near the river. 

 As soon as it was out of sight I ran back to camp, 

 and picking up my rifle returned in search of the 

 lynx. I had been looking for it for several minutes, 

 and as there were several patches of thick scrub about, 

 was commencing to give up all hope of ever seeing it 

 again, when it suddenly came into view once more, 

 trotting slowly along as before. I at once fired at and 

 hit it, the expanding Mannlicher bullet tearing a big 

 hole through the skin where it came out. It proved to 

 be a very fair specimen a male of the Canadian 

 lynx (Lynx canadensis), which I was very pleased to 

 have secured for my collection, as these animals, 

 though frequently trapped, are not often shot. 



We had now reached a country where with luck 

 wapiti might have been encountered at any moment, 

 since it was impossible to walk many miles in any 

 direction without crossing tracks of these magnificent 

 animals, either fresh or not many days old, whilst here 

 and there small spruce saplings half peeled of their bark, 

 and with their lower branches beaten to the ground, 

 showed where some lordly stag had lately rubbed the 

 velvet from his horns. Yet I hunted hard for twenty 

 days, and during that time probably walked on an 

 average quite twenty miles a day in very rough coun- 

 try, before I carried my first wapiti head back to 

 camp. 



