236 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



he would, but that I would n't, for it was really most 

 exhausting work getting through the deep snow. 



At last we reached the edge of the timber, and 

 emerged upon the shining snow-field that capped 

 the top of the mountain. On the very highest point 

 the wapiti had lain down to rest ; and although we 

 did not see him, he had probably seen us as we came 

 out of the forest, and again dashed off. But now he 

 could climb no higher, and had perforce therefore to 

 commence the descent of the mountain. He very 

 soon got into a very steep place, where at some 

 former time an avalanche had swept down the moun- 

 tain-side, and cleared all the trees away in its path. 

 This open ride through the forest was very steep, 

 but covered deep with snow, so that it was easy work 

 for Graham and myself to get down it, but must have 

 been a terrible strain on the disabled wapiti. We 

 must have come down a thousand feet from the top 

 of the mountain, when we suddenly saw him. He 

 was lying down in the snow, on a small level shoulder 

 of ground in the path of the avalanche, and, cunning 

 to the last, was facing back the way he had come, 

 so as to command a view of anything coming on his 

 tracks. As we saw him, he must, I think, have seen 

 us, but we were only just in sight, and must have 

 been quite two hundred yards above him, and he was 

 probably too deadly tired to move again until it was 

 absolutely necessary. After the great exertions I had 

 made I did not feel very steady, but at once sat down, 



