HOIV THE ELK IS HUNTED 317 



of creeping about quietly — in fact the most ele- 

 mentary principles of hunting, and the element of 

 chance existing so strongly that it is merely a 

 matter of 'bull-headed luck' if you come across 

 a bull moose with a head measuring forty inches 

 or seventy inches. . . . Any intelligent being can 

 master the principles of moose-hunting, as carried 

 on in the Kenai forests, after two days playing at 

 being his native's [guide's] marionette, to such an 

 extent that he is fully capable of going and killing 

 his own moose single-handed."^ 



Evidently Capt. Radclyffe learned little from 

 his guide of how the moose should be hunted — 

 little of the animal's habits, and little of the signifi- 

 cance of the many "signs" which abound in good 

 moose cover. Perhaps the guide himself was 

 unskilled ; if so, and it was the captain's first moose- 

 hunting trip, his own skill would not be much 

 greater at the end of two days in the moose country. 

 As for luck, it is a factor, but a minor one, in the 

 still-hunting of an intelligent and experienced 

 sportsman or guide. 



Abel Chapman, in a chapter on "Norwegian 

 Elk Hunting" in Big Game Shooting,^ writes: 

 "It will be obvious . . . that an animal, found 



* Big Game Shooting in Alaska (London, 1904), pp. 203-204. 



* Country Life Library of Sport (London, 1905), vol. i., p. 126. 



