364 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA YS 
CHAP. 
until October. I could have shot several of these 
animals; but I was full of good resolutions to resist 
all temptation, and to restrict my shooting to the 
long-sought bear. 
We had followed the course of the ravine for 
about a mile, when I suddenly heard a tremendous 
rush among the cotton trees beneath me on the 
right, followed by excited shouts—‘‘ Look out! look 
out I A bear ! a bear! ” 
I halted immediately, and in a few seconds three 
splendid wapiti stags broke covert about 100 yards 
before me, and at full gallop passed across the open 
ground by which I was descending. My good 
resolutions crowded upon me as I instinctively 
aimed at the stag with the finest head, and I 
resisted the temptation nobly until they were nearly 
out of sight, passing down a hollow on my left about 
150 yards distant. Somehow or other I pulled the 
trigger; a cloud of dust suddenly arose from the 
spot where the three stags had disappeared, and I 
felt sure that the wapiti was down. 
At the sound of the shot my men struggled up 
the steep ascent and joined me. “ Why did you 
shout ‘A bear I a bear!’?” I asked.—“It was a 
bear, wasn’t it ? I saw a great brown rump for 
a moment, and I thought it was the bear.”—“ No 
bear at all,” I answered, “and I have been fool 
enough to shoot at a wapiti. ... I think you will 
find it just in the hollow beneath the ridge.” 
The men rode to the spot, and sure enough a 
magnificent stag was lying dead, shot through the 
