2o8 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



through high grass and thick brush, all streaming with water 

 in the early mornings, after a heavy dew or rain during the 

 night ! During five days I only saw one small bull moose, 

 and Glyn did not manage to see even so much as this 

 during the same period. Little did, however, succeed in 

 killing a small bull moose on a day when we all set out with 

 the intention of getting some meat, of which we had been 

 destitute for several days. 



On the day following I also managed to get a moose with 

 a fair-sized head, so that we then had too much meat on 

 hand at once. On this occasion I was walking up the side 

 of a steep hill, and through high grass above my waist, 

 followed by a native. He was not my own trusty man 

 Pitka, whom I had left in camp. My attendant on this 

 particular occasion was called Ivan, and considered himself 

 something of a hunter, but so far as I could make out his 

 greatest exploit had occurred in the previous season, when he 

 and another native were following a wounded moose in some 

 high brush. Ivan saw something move in the high bushes 

 and fired at once. He was somewhat surprised afterwards 

 to find that he had shot his companion dead on the spot. 



As we walked along, I told him to keep a sharp look-out 

 on each side, whilst I kept looking ahead. On stopping 

 to take breath, I turned and glanced back, and there, 

 standing in an open clearing, about 200 yards away below 

 us and exactly in the line where Ivan should have been 

 spying, was a fine bull moose, evidently listening to the 

 noise of our approach. He was not looking straight at us, 

 so that it was hard to see exactly the spread of his horns. 

 We dared not move nearer, as, although the grass was high, 

 we were fairly exposed to view on the steep slope of the 

 hill. The first thing to decide was whether the moose bore 



