244 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



ran and slid and clambered, as hard as I could go, 

 diagonally downwards, until I struck the wapiti's 

 tracks, and, Graham joining me, we followed them as 

 quickly as we could into the bed of the creek. We 

 had got quite close to the falls, always following the 

 wapiti's tracks, and Graham had just said, " Well, 

 I be doggoned, but I 'm afraid he 's beat us this 

 time," when I suddenly spied him, standing on the 

 face of the cliff high above us. 



The poor animal, for the second time finding it 

 impossible to pass the falls, had endeavoured to climb 

 the mountain-side to the right of them. A steep 

 slope, covered for some fifty feet from the water's 

 edge with pine-trees, gave him no difficulty, but above 

 this there was nothing but bare rock, not exactly 

 precipitous, but still very steep. Up this he had 

 managed to ascend for fifty feet or so, and could then 

 apparently neither get higher nor come lower again. 

 Looking up through the pine-trees, I saw him, and 

 from his attitude I think he was watching us. I at 

 once fired at him. I knew I had hit him, but he 

 never moved, so slipping in another cartridge I fired 

 again. Both these bullets struck him in the chest, 

 and just missing his heart pierced his lungs, and lay 

 together under the skin at the top of his shoulder- 

 blade, for I had fired almost straight upwards. 



For a moment yet the doomed beast stood still, 

 then, slowly lurching over, came rushing a lifeless 

 mass down the cliff. He fell head first, and the first 



