292 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



a short distance below us, and I was rejoiced to see 

 that he carried quite a nice head, though not better 

 than the best head I had got the preceding year. 

 Both my bullets had struck him, and either would 

 have proved mortal ; in fact, I fancy he was on the 

 point of succumbing to the first, which had broken 

 his shoulder and must have passed very near his 

 heart, when the second struck him a few inches 

 farther back, and caused him to fall dead into the 

 gully below him. 



We now climbed the hillside a most difficult and 

 tedious operation in "gum" boots to where the 

 third wapiti had been when I fired at him, and soon 

 found blood on his tracks. We followed him for 

 about an hour in some very steep rocky ground, 

 and then, as it was evident that he had not received 

 a mortal hurt, but was only bleeding from flesh- 

 wounds in the hind-quarters, we thought it advisable 

 to give him time to lie down, which Graham said 

 that he would be likely to do before going very far, if 

 he did not think he was being pursued, rather than 

 run the risk of again alarming him, whilst he was still 

 very much on the alert, in which case he might very 

 likely give no chance of a shot, and would be sure 

 to travel many miles before halting. We therefore 

 went down and cut off the head of the larger bull, 

 removed the head skin of the smaller one, and opened 

 both carcasses to get the inside fat. It may be 

 thought strange that a wapiti bull of any size should 



