210 THE STALKING OF A STAG 



and try for him in the evening. When once they 

 have reached the shelter of the bush the deer do 

 not go far, but lie up and come out to feed in the 

 evening, very often close to the spot at which they 

 entered it in the morning. 



I followed this stag that afternoon, but found by 

 the tracks that he had left the corrie and gone into 

 dense timber on the other side of the ridge. 

 George had been after his eleven-pointer down the 

 valley, but had seen nothing. Next morning 

 Yung-sha went out early to look for tracks and 

 came back saying that he had found some crossing 

 the valley above the camp. Accordingly George 

 and Purdom, who was staying with us, went off 

 together. Lao- Wei and I tried the east side of the 

 valley, but saw no game, as a leopard had been all 

 over the ground and disturbed everything. As we 

 were coming down the hill in the evening we heard 

 a stag roaring in the corrie behind the camp where 

 we had seen the nine-pointer and, shortly afterwards, 

 a shot. George came in presently, having killed an 

 eleven-pointer. It had long curving horns and was 

 altogether a very pretty graceful head. 



The day following I went up beyond the corrie 

 where he had killed it and saw a nice ten-pointer 

 with three hinds late in the afternoon. He was in 

 a very bad position for a stalk, but we tried to get 

 in and almost succeeded. However, he saw us 

 crossing an open hill and sulkily moved his hinds off 

 over a ridge out of sight. He was not much 

 alarmed, and I cherished some lingering hopes that 

 we might yet see him again. 



It was a bitterly cold night. Soon after daylight 

 George, Purdom and the doctor started to walk 



