ELUSIVE WAPITI

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 86, 11 April 1935, Page 11

ELUSIVE WAPITI

SEEN BUT NOT SHOT

TITLED VISITOR'S STALKING

Wapiti-stalking may be one of the Dominion's attractions for sportsmen from overseas, but be the stalker ever so skilful it does not necessarily follow that he returns home in triumph with a head. The wapiti are there all right, in the mountainous country of the south-western portion of the South Island, but to shoot them is by no means easy. Amongst those who have recently tried their luck in this direction is Viscount Chaplin. He was camped for eleven days in the Sounds country, but conditions were suitable for stalking on only three of those days. His luck, however, was out: one splendid head was seen, but none were brought back. Viscount Chaplin was impressed with the amount of rain that falls in the Sounds country. Besides having dense bush to contend with, the country he found to be the most precipitous he had seen, and a man, he reckons, must be very active to negotiate it. He thinks that three weeks or a month is the minimum time for a stalking expedition such as the one he undertook. "One never has time to do all the things one wishes to do," he confessed. "One just finds out on the first visit what one really wants to do. I certainly hope to come here again, but I don't know when I will be able to fit in a visit. I think you have a wonderful country here with [ tremendous.possibilities." At Lake Manapouri Viscount Chaplin joined up with his guide, Mr. Leslie Murrell, and camped first near the Henry Saddle. The week before he arrived, so the guide told him, four or five wapiti bulls and seven or eight cows had been seen in the high country, but they were not fortunate enough to see them again. Near Mount Murrell Viscount Chaplin sighted a bull about two miles away in a high basin. "He was a magnificent beast," said Viscount Chaplin, '.'with a beautiful head." It was then the late afternoon, however, i and they could not go after him.

There came a change in the weather the next day, and again they were forestalled. They shifted camp to a spot near Lake Thompson, intending to go on to Lake Sutherland, but heavy rain and thick mist prevented them penetrating any further. They waited five days and then went back to their original camp.

Viscount 'Chaplin gave it as his opinion that there were many wapiti in the Sounds country, and towards the coast they were even more numerous. Had he had the time to spare he would have gone on to George Sound, but that was impossible.

In his subsequent stalking of red deer Viscount Chaplin found that his luck was still out. He did not get a shot, although he saw numbers of deer that were not worth shooting. The deer could be heard in the bush, but could not be seen.

His luck was still out when he went from the Hermitage to the Hooker Valley. He saw there a number of thar and chamois, but not having taken a rifle with him the thar and chamois did not have their numbers depleted. A return visit the next day with a rifle was abortive, the thar and chamois having moved out of range.

In big-game fishing, however, in North Auckland earlier in the season, Viscount Chaplin had more luck. Although new to the sport, he managed to land a 2901b striped marlin swordfish. "It was a great piece of luck," is his comment.