230 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



However, I did not now pay much attention to him, as 

 I wanted first to secure the larger animal in front. 

 My first shot, however, had pierced his lungs, and he 

 came to a halt very soon after he was hit. I did 

 not know at the time whether I had hit him or not, 

 for although I could see that he had halted, I could 

 only see his horns, as immediately after I got my shot 

 at him his body again became hidden by the con- 

 tour of the ground. I now renewed my efforts to 

 get a few yards nearer to him through the snow, but 

 when I got a view of him I did not fire, as I saw he 

 was done for. Suddenly his legs gave way beneath 

 him, and he came rolling down the steep mountain- 

 side close past me, and would most certainly never 

 have stopped till he had reached the bed of the East 

 Fork, some fifteen hundred feet below, had he not 

 presently been brought up by a big pine-tree. Curi- 

 ously enough, he slid to within ten yards of the stag 

 which had been first wounded. This latter was now 

 so weakened by loss of blood that he could move no 

 farther through the deep snow, and he now lay down. 

 When I moved down towards him he tried to get 

 on his feet, but was unable to do so, and I then 

 came close to him and killed him with a bullet 

 through the lungs. After having been first wounded 

 he had fled before me, until his strength had alto- 

 gether failed, and his legs had refused to carry him 

 any farther. To have killed two wapiti stags within 

 ten yards of each other was certainly a very sue- 



