240 FOEEST CREATURES. 



see what traces he left just there : see if your shot made 

 him reel, and he stumbled, and then recovered himself; 

 marks of which momentary circumstance you may find 

 left behind on the soft ground. 



If you only get such view of an animal as to enable 

 you to fire at it merely, but without giving it a good 

 shot, — that is, one likely to prove mortal, — rather let 

 it pass, and do not fire. To a true sportsman it is very 

 unsatisfactory to give some fine head of game a bad 

 shot, breaking a leg for instance, even though he ob- 

 tain it at last by dint of exertion and long pursuit. 

 And to wound an animal and not obtain it, is always 

 cause for regret and self-reproach. The stag alluded 

 to at page 82, that had taken up his abode on a ledge 

 of the mountain, I once climbed up after, and waited 

 for. Evidently suspecting danger he came creeping 

 forth, bending low down, entirely hidden among the 

 latschen. He approached thus quite near where I was 

 sitting, and thrust out his nose from among the branches. 

 Suddenly turning, he dashed off among the high bushes, 

 and though I sprang to my feet, and with rifle at my 

 shoulder followed him as he went, — for I could see his 

 large spreading antlers waving above the boughs, — still 

 I could not get a shot ; for I would not fire at random, 

 and merely wound, perhaps, so fine a hart, without ever 

 obtaining him. 



If you are in the mountains, and in pursuit of 



