256 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



On reaching the fence and looking across the open 

 ground beyond, I at once saw the wounded buck 

 standing just on the edge of the farther wood. Then 

 he moved slowly forwards, just within it. I now 

 waited till Graham came up, when we at once made 

 for the spot where I had last seen the deer. But 

 before reaching it we saw the wounded beast lying 

 down just within the edge of the wood. He was 

 evidently dying, but fearing lest he might still have 

 strength to make a dash into the river, which was 

 quite close at hand, I killed him with a shot through 

 the base of the neck. He proved to be a fine old 

 buck, somewhat past his prime, Graham thought, but 

 still with quite a nice head for this part of America, 

 where white-tailed deer, I believe, never attained to 

 the size and weight they reach in lower Canada and 

 the eastern States. 



After cleaning him, we dragged him to camp over 

 the snow, and I then weighed him at once. He 

 scaled twelve stone, seven pounds clean, which would 

 have given him a live weight of about two hundred 

 and thirty pounds. In Maine and Lower Canada I 

 believe that white-tailed deer have been known to reach 

 a live weight of three hundred and twenty pounds. I 

 was intensely delighted to have brought to a success- 

 ful conclusion my only hunt after a white-tailed deer, 

 especially as I believe him to have been the only 

 big buck of this species surviving in this part of 

 Wyoming. 



