Big Game in the Rockies 
mud. The elk has a great deal of natural 
curiosity, and I have seen extraordinary in- 
stances of this where they had been but 
little hunted or alarmed. My friend Phillips, 
of Washington, who was with me, will vouch 
for the veracity of this story, which I give 
as an example: We were wandering along 
the top of the mountain, some nine thou- 
sand feet up, trying to stalk some elk, not to 
shoot them, but to photograph them. We 
jumped a small band of bulls, numbering about 
sixteen. They trotted off slowly, frequently 
stopping to look back, until all but two large 
bulls had disappeared. These walked slowly 
back to within fifty yards of where we were 
standing, and stopped, facing us. 
It was truly one of the most charming 
sights one could have wished for, to have those 
graceful, sleek creatures almost close enough 
to caress. Presently, with a defiant snort, and 
with a succession of short barks, they would 
move away and come back again, repeating 
these manceuvers over and over again, until 
we got tired of trying to look like a brace of 
marble posts and sat down. We thought this 
would frighten them, but it did not, and once 
105 
