sight more
than this short struggle between him and his murderers over twenty yards
of ground. None but men, like the Norwegians, accustomed to these savage
animals, could have controlled the deer in any way; but notwithstanding
all their caution, I saw the buck kick one man on the chest, and throw
him, exactly like a nine-pin, over and over, some few feet along the
beach. The manner by which the Norwegians had secured this powerful
animal was so ingenious, that he could, by no means, do much mischief,
except to those persons who, bolder than the rest, went near to caress
him; for three ropes were bound round the root of the horns, and being
five or six feet in length, were held by three men who stood in the form
of an angle, the head of the deer forming the base; or, in other words,
one man stood on the left side of the buck, in a line with his left
shoulder; a second man stood on the right side opposite to the right
shoulder, while the third man took his station in front; and the three
men were careful that the rope in the custody of each of them should be
kept tight, since the peril of its being slack must be as obvious as its
contrariety of tension; for whenever the animal made a plunge, as he
sometimes did, towards the man on his right side, the Norwegian on the
left could immediately check the career of the maddened deer by "holding
on his end," as sailors say; the man in front at the same time giving
his protection, and being protected in his turn.

The facility with which this buck was led seemed surprising; for the
animal had not only his natural ferocity to offer against the skill of
his antagonists, but he possessed strength and all the madness born of
the human sounds to which he had been unaccustomed,--the loud ribaldry,
and laughter of men and women, the whistle, and shrill cries of boys and
frighted infants. Submitting to my ignorance, I must say that I had
never seen any large animal killed, and did not know how the operation
was performed; and with a feeling of the most horrible infatuation I
gathered in the small group round the animal to learn the stratagems
observed to surround his legs with looped ropes which, being drawn
quickly, slipped into knots and tripped him up. When the proud deer fell
to the ground, a man drawing a knife from his pocket, and unclasping it,
thrust the blade up to the hilt into the skull between the horns. I
could not have conceived anything deprived of life so suddenly; and w