THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
so, pressing the trigger steadily, I fired. The buck at once dropped to his 
knees and rolled over quite dead as the shot echoed and reverberated 
amongst the rocks. I slipped in a second cartridge and sighted on the 
other large buck that stood broadside, looking down hill. He “lifted” to 
the shot — a sure sign of a fatal blow — and sprang over the edge of the 
plateau, falling amongst the rocks with a crash and rolling down the steep 
hillside. The whole herd was now thoroughly alarmed and galloping in a 
thick mob down the hill, bucks and does all crowding together. I re- 
versed my position and lay down facing the other side of the corrie, over 
the shoulder of which I expected them to pass, and waited. Like all deer, 
they hesitated as they ascended the first rise, and strung out sufficiently 
to separate individuals. As they ran up the opposite slope I noticed one 
stag with very good horns and kept my eye upon him. Fortunately he stood 
clear as the herd halted for a moment, and I fired at him at a distance of 
300 yards just as he stopped. This was my lucky day, for I heard the 
bullet “clap” loudly on his flank and had the satisfaction of seeing him 
lag behind and then stagger slowly out of view as the herd disappeared. 
I now found Ole at my elbow pouring forth congratulations in an excited 
voice. He had heard the last bullet tell but knew nothing of my first two 
shots, which had been out of his view. His astonishment was delightful 
to witness when we walked down to the long -horned stag and then saw 
the legs of the second sticking up amongst the rocks below. We just did 
the usual dance and sang a paean of victory; then we descended the hill 
and looked carefully over the ridge of the further hill, and there lay No. 3, 
quite dead. For once everything had gone as well as we could have wished, 
and I had killed three heads of Norwegian reindeer, as good as one is 
likely to get nowadays. No. 1 was 54 inches long, with thirty points; No. 2, 
48 inches long, with forty-three points; No. 3, 50 inches long, with thirty- 
six points. 
Ole took two heads on his back and I one, and the distance to the hut 
seemed very short. My hunter spent the rest of the day attending to the 
meat for himself, whilst I cleaned the skulls of the stags. 
It did not take very long to discover that we had found and lost the only 
herd of reindeer in the neighbourhood. As each day succeeded without 
showing a single fresh track we began to give up hope that anything shootable 
would be found within a limit of twenty miles of the stone hut, and I had some 
idea of abandoning the hunt, being quite satisfied with the heads already 
obtained. But the mountain air was glorious, the scenery grand if 
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