460 WILD ANIMALS. 



neither animal getting a decided advantage, in consequence of 

 their having to stop fighting from sheer exhaustion. The extra- 

 ordinary endurance, pluck, and wonderful skill displayed in these 

 tussles for the mastery are sights which will amply reward a 

 sportsman, who has a chance of witnessing an encounter of this 

 nature, for any toil it may be necessary to undergo in order to 

 get to the scene of battle unobserved. For it is blood-stirring 

 to watch the quickness of the animals' movements, their 

 defiant attitudes, their vigorous onslaughts, and to hear the 

 attesta,tion of the savage force with which they charge being 

 echoed from the hills as their antlers clash together and rattle in 

 the conflict ; or should their horns become inextricably locked, 

 there will ensue a tussle of strength that can only be described 

 as a magnificent exhibition of animal prowess which must 

 terminate in the discomfiture of the weaker stag, without 

 perhaps at the last, when both have been forced to their knees, 

 one should get the chance of driving his horns into the exposed 

 flanks of the other, for in such a case death is almost an immediate 

 result, and his victory is complete. 



" The size, strength, and speed of the elk," writes the hunter 

 before quoted, " ought to fit it for some useful domestic purpose. 

 It could be trained to be a valuable beast of burden ; and its speed 

 is so great, and it has so much power of endurance, that it could 

 be used either for drawing a carriage, or to carry couriers who 

 have to ride long distances at a rapid rate. By treating it as 

 geldings are, the pugnacity and ill-temper it displays during the 

 rutting season could be readily overcome, and it would be 

 rendered as docile as a donkey. A friend of mine once owned a 

 pair treated in this manner, and he found that very little training 

 was required to fit them for drawing a carriage. When it came 

 to road driving, he saw that no steeds he met could even keep in 

 sight of his antlered Pegasuses for any length of time. Their long 

 trotting gait, which never seems to falter either in measure or 

 speed, makes them the perfection of carriage roadsters ; but they 

 have this one great drawback, that if they hear the cry of hounds 

 they will bolt immediately, and probably leave. carnage and driver 

 behind them. The pair which I refer to were startled suddenly 



