GALICIA, 1910 
wood stalking it is imperative to fire at any part of a stag that shows, 
for after such a bold advance the deer is sure to be suspicious, and to move 
off if the opportunity, poor though it is, is not seized. Accordingly I aimed 
carefully to the right of the black oval disc and let go. The stag at once 
stumbled and half fell at the impact of the heavy bullet, and keeping well 
in the thick cover moved rapidly away. I fired three somewhat hopeless 
shots after him, which doubtless found their billets amongst the tree stems, 
and then ran forward in the hope that the stag might have fallen. This was 
an unfortunate move, as the stag heard me and crashed away down the hill 
on three legs. What was to be done now ? If we sent to Zelonica for a dog it 
would be eight hours before it could come, and there might be no dog 
there. Accordingly I sat down, and, pointing to my watch, explained to 
Pietro that we must wait for two and a half hours before starting to track 
the wounded animal, for it was quite possible that we ourselves might 
be able to overtake the beast by patient spooring. Pietro agreed with me, 
and we had breakfast and a pipe with minds full of hopeful and pessimistic 
reflections. 
At last the time of waiting was past, and I rose to take up the track; 
my fear was lest the ground might be like that over which we had already 
passed, dry and stony; but luck was for once in my favour, as the route 
the stag had taken lay down the steep hill over damp earth, on which the 
heavily indented tracks were easy to follow. There was much blood to 
prove that the heavy bullet had created a wound of some magnitude, and 
this, combined with the fact that the stag on reaching the main valley had 
subsided into a walk, gave every confidence that we would bring the 
chase to a successful issue if the ground remained soft. But on reaching 
the little river, the forest opened up and the sun had penetrated to the stony 
slopes of short grass, drying the turned leaves and vegetation and making 
the spoor almost impossible to discern. Here we were at fault many 
times and I only regained the track by sending Pietro to make casts ahead 
in the damp forest. After considerable delays the hunter picked it up 
successfully on both occasions, and we had another quick follow-up for 
a mile or more. On crossing a second stream, on the border of Pitseredna, 
we received a further check on hard open ground, and for fully ten minutes 
the trail of the stag was impossible to find. At last I discovered it, ascending 
a steep bank, not a very hopeful sign, but on reaching the crown of the 
ridge, the effort seemed to have been too much for the stag, which had 
plainly fallen and had difficulty in rising. Immediately afterwards the 
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