210 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



amongst the thickly growing tree-stems. I really 

 had but the slightest chance of hitting him, but I 

 fired a forlorn hope of a shot after him, and prob- 

 ably put the bullet into a tree. It was almost too 

 dusk then to see blood on the ground amongst the 

 pine needles, but I came back again the next morn- 

 ing and assured myself there was none. As I walked 

 home in the dark, I thought what a mockery it was 

 to have had a wapiti presented to me under such 

 conditions. Had I come across him earlier in the 

 day, when I was moving through the forest cautiously 

 with all my senses on the alert, I might have seen 

 him sooner and perhaps got a good chance. How- 

 ever, in the pursuit of all wary game in a forest coun- 

 try, there must inevitably be " many a slip 'twixt the 

 cup and the lip," and luck will often have more to do 

 with one's success than good management. Still 

 " it 's dogged as does it," in hunting as in everything 

 else ; and given plenty of time, perseverance is bound 

 to wear down bad luck sooner or later. 



On October 8, I went out with Jinks. We started 

 on horseback and rode some miles along a blazed 

 trail, that is, along a path which, though other- 

 wise invisible, was marked here ar>d there by trees 

 from which a piece of bark had been chopped, 

 leading up the valley of one of the many tributa- 

 ries of the main stream on which we were camped. 

 Presently we reached a point beyond which the ground 

 was very much cut up by steep-sided gullies, and here 



