SPORT AND TRAVEL 213 



it was intersected, when we came on the very fresh 

 track of a deer, which my companion at once pro- 

 nounced to be an animal of unusual size. " You 'd 

 get some horns, I guess, if you could get him," he re- 

 marked, and we at once set about tracking him up. 

 There was no snow on the ground here, and we very 

 soon lost the tracks completely. Jinks then went 

 off to the right to try to pick them up again, whilst 

 I held on in the direction it seemed to me that the 

 deer had been travelling. It was not long before 

 I again found the tracks ; and a moment later I saw 

 the horns of the deer itself appear just above some 

 wild currant bushes. I was now in mortal fear lest 

 Jinks should come towards me or call out, and so 

 disturb the deer; but fortune favoured me, and on 

 creeping to a rock and looking over it I got a clear 

 view of a splendid buck mule deer. He was standing 

 in a favourable position for a shot, less than a hun- 

 dred yards away from me, so I lost no time in firing. 

 At the report of my rifle he went off in a series of 

 leaps for about thirty yards through the wild currant 

 bushes, then stopped, and just as I was going to fire 

 again, rolled over. When I came up to him he was 

 quite dead, my bullet having struck him rather low 

 behind the shoulder, torn a large hole through the 

 side of his heart, and passed out through the lower 

 part of the neck. When Jinks came up he pronounced 

 him to be a very large mule deer. He was astonish- 

 ingly fat and carried a fine massive head, his horns 



