62 HOOFED ANIMALS 
with him. Not wishing to be punctured, the intended vic- 
tim lays hold of the antlers, and seeks to keep them out of 
his vitals. On finding himself opposed, the buck begins to 
drive forward like a battering-ram, and then the struggle 
is on. 
Heaven help the man thus attacked, if no other help be 
near! He shuts his teeth, grips the murderous bone spears 
with all his strength, leans well forward, and with the strength 
and nimbleness of desperation, struggles to maintain his 
grasp and keep his feet. Each passing instant the rage of 
the buck and his joy of combat increase. If the man goes 
down, and help fails to come quickly, his chances of escaping 
the spears are few. 
Once when unarmed and alone I saved myself from an 
infuriated buck (fortunately a small one) by suddenly releas- 
ing one antler, seizing a fore leg low down, and pulling it up 
so high that the animal was powerless to lunge forward as he 
had been doing. In this way I held him at bay, and at last 
worked him to a spot where I secured a stout cudgel, with 
which I belabored him so unmercifully that he was con- 
quered for that day. 
The strength and fury of a buck of insignificant size are 
often beyond belief. The loving “pet” of May readily be- 
comes the dangerous, fury-filled murderer of October. With 
a large deer of any species, a man not fully armed has little 
chance. In the winter of 1902, at Helena, Montana, a man 
armed with a pitchfork entered an elk corral, to show a friend 
that the large male elk feared him. The elk furiously at- 
tacked him and killed him before he could be rescued. 
