SPORT AND TRAVEL 303 



This stag was an extremely heavy, massive animal, 

 with an immensely thick neck, the circumference of 

 which, after the skin had been removed, I found to 

 measure twenty-nine inches, midway between jaw and 

 chest, and forty-seven inches just in front of the 

 shoulders. We were so pleased at getting this fine 

 buck deer that we abandoned the wapiti tracks, and 

 set about getting the deer meat back to camp. After 

 removing the head and neck skin, and collecting all 

 the inside fat, we dragged the disembowelled carcass 

 over the snow to the slope of the mountain overlook- 

 ing the valley of the river on which we were camped, 

 and then slid it down the hillside. It never went far 

 without fetching up against a tree, from which it had 

 to be cleared and started again. This mule deer stag, 

 like the two previously shot, was excessively fat ; but 

 his great swollen neck, and the fact that the meat had 

 a slight musky flavour about it, showed, I suppose, 

 that he had either commenced to rut, or was just 

 about to commence, though as yet he had lost noth- 

 ing of his high condition. 



Four days later I shot my fourth and last mule deer 

 stag. Though not quite such a fine animal as the one 

 whose capture I have just recounted, this was also a 

 very big buck, with a handsome widespread head. 

 We had determined to move camp to a side creek a 

 little lower down the river ; and as Graham was wanted 

 to assist in packing, I went out in search of game by 

 myself. I saw nothing all day, and late in the after- 



