Wapiti or Elk 63 



J. A. Ricker, of Denver, related to me an incident that he 

 witnessed on two different occasions. One day, November i, 

 1899, while hunting in Routt County, Colorado, he heard a 

 bull Elk whistle. He got off his horse and, sneaking over a 

 ridge, saw the bull in a hollow with three cows. Suddenly 

 a reply to the challenge came from a distant bull that had 

 a splendid bugle-note, winding up with three separate toots. 

 The bull near at hand no sooner heard this than he dashed at 

 the nearest cow, prodding her severely with his horns, then 

 at the others, driving them as fast as he could away from the 

 direction of the other bull. Evidently he was afraid to risk 

 a fight with the owner of that voice. 



It is rarely that a wild Elk will go out of its way to attack plg- 

 a man, but this has happened more than once. Charles H. '""'^^^^^ 

 Stonebridge, of New York, vouches for the following: 



About two years ago John Legg, one of the ranchers in 

 the Valley of the Stinking Water, Wyoming, had been up in the 

 mountains hunting and was returning with his trophies on a 

 pack-horse. The trail from the Continental Divide runs 

 along the bank of the river and is very dangerous in a great 

 many places. After coming down about forty miles, Legg 

 came to a particularly bad part of the trail; nothing more, in 

 fact, than a shelf about two feet wide on the side of a cliff and 

 extending for about three hundred feet. On one side there 

 was a sheer wall of rock, on the other a sheer fall to the canon 

 below. A single misstep meant instant death. Legg had 

 been over this trail many times with the horses he was then 

 using, and, without hesitation, drove his pack animal before 

 him. When about half-way across he was suddenly confronted 

 by a large bull Elk, coming from the other direction. The 

 Elk seemed to consider that he had right of way, as without a 

 moment's hesitation he lowered his head, dashed at the pack- 

 horse and hurled it over the cliff into the caiion below, 

 where it was instantly killed. Having got rid of the pack- 

 horse, the bull now turned on the saddle-beast, and Legg was 

 in imminent peril. It was impossible for him to get off his 



