248 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



to be able to climb to a level with him, out of view, 

 and then approach him against the wind. I only just 

 managed to get within shot of him, whilst there was 

 still light enough to shoot, but at last I reached the 

 edge of the piece of forest in which he had taken 

 shelter during the day, and creeping to a rock on the 

 open grass slope where he was busily feeding, killed 

 him with a bullet through the heart at a distance of 

 not more than eighty yards. 



On the following day we brought the whole of the 

 meat down to the ranch, and helped Davies to cut it 

 up and dry it over fires for future use. I weighed this 

 wapiti, and found him to be a very much lighter 

 beast than the one I had shot two days previously, 

 though he carried a very fair head of 13 points, with a 

 good spread, and a length of 48 inches. His total 

 weight clean was 236 kilos, which works out to 36 

 stone, 12 Ibs. He would, of course, have weighed a 

 few stone more probably upwards of 40 stone 

 when in high condition, for when I shot him shortly 

 after the rut, he was naturally much run down. Gra- 

 ham pronounced him to be a fair-sized bull of about 

 eight years old, and it is on this pronouncement that 

 I have hazarded the suggestion that the heaviest 

 red deer stags of the Caucasus and Eastern Europe, 

 which attain to a weight of 45 stone clean, are heavier 

 than some full-grown wapiti bulls of to-day. 



On November i, we packed all our traps on our 

 waggon, and bidding good-bye to our kind friends at 



