ELK HUNTING 
the light would be gone. To add to our difficulties, the wind, which had 
for some time been falling away, began to follow the usual course of puffs 
from all directions, so familiar and so disheartening to the stalker. Kristian 
therefore moved a bit to my left, from which a better view was to be ob- 
tained, and as soon as he looked over the ridge, some thirty feet above my 
position, I saw by his excited manner that he was in sight of the bull. To 
kick off my right boot, run up and join him was the work of a minute. 
And now I saw before me, quietly resting on a high bank close to the cow, 
a perfect monster of a bull, such as I had never dared to hope for. His head, 
too, was a very good one, and as I was laying my plans for an immediate 
advance, Kristian whispered in my ear, “ There is not a bigger in 
Norway.” It was all over in quicker time than it takes to write. Only a 
swift descent into a dip, a run forward (how sharp the rocks were), a 
rapid scramble up a boulder between two ridges, and there I was lying in 
position within 200 yards of one of the finest beasts I had ever seen. The 
cow was walking about uneasily, and though the bull took no notice of her 
it was not advisable to try and get any nearer, so I determined to shoot. 
“ Crack ” went the little Mannlicher. The great beast rose to his feet and 
reeled about. “ Crack ” again. He almost fell to his knees, but recovered 
and dashed out of sight at once. Dying to follow him up, I tried to run; 
but not another step could I take for the pain in my foot, so giving Kristian 
the rifle I sat down on a rock and fairly chuckled With delight, knowing 
well enough that the prize was mine. In another minute the rifle spoke out 
again, followed by a loud shout, and, scrambling painfully up the ridge, 
I saw Kristian waving his cap and standing over the elk not 200 yards 
away. What a horrid noise we did make, to be sure! I shouted and danced 
about like a madman, forgetting all else save the joy of possession. “ This 
is one of the best three I have ever seen,” said Kristian as we sat on the 
carcass; “two others I have shot as big, but no bigger.” To give some 
idea of the bulk of this great creature I may say that it took the united 
efforts of four of us to turn it over on the following morning. Both of my 
shots had hit him fairly in the neck. The head, though on close inspection, 
somewhat disappointing, was of great width (46 -inch span) and very 
thick in the beam, but there was no palm to speak of: only great points, 
five on the right and three on the left, the whole looking more like a wapiti 
head than that of an elk. 
Flushed with victory even the miserable walk in the dark up rocky 
hills to our camp fire some six miles away did not seem so very dread - 
287 
