ON THE MAMMALIA OF THIS DISTRICT. 217 



was my next question. "I did," lie said, "with, 

 my rifle." She lay on her right side, and he 

 pointed to a bullet-hole in the left shoulder. That 

 was just where I shot, and, as the wound was 

 evidently old, for the blood had crusted round it, 

 I felt certain this was my bullet-mark, and if there 

 was no other the elk was mine. But it would 

 soon be proved upon examination whose bullet 

 had brought her down, for I was the only party 

 who used a conical ball, and, moreover, my bullet 

 was much too large to fit his rifle. When we 

 turned her over we could find only one bullet-hole, 

 although four shots had been fired at her after 

 mine ; and when we skinned her I took my ball 

 out of the body, which had passed through the 

 shoulder and lungs, breaking two ribs, and lodging 

 in the skin on the opposite side. She had thus 

 carried my ball nearly two English miles, and, 

 after escaping all the other shots, had at length 

 fallen from internal haemorrhage. The man who 

 fired the rifle shot owned that it was a long snap- 

 shot, and the elk went on ; and had not one of 

 the beaters chanced to stumble over the body 

 which lay in his path, we should have lost her. I 

 think it almost an act of cruelty to shoot at an elk 

 with less than a 2-oz. ball, for they hardly ever 

 appear to drop at the first shot; and to prove 

 how easily they will carry away a small ball, I may 



