American Big Game in its Haunts 



alfalfa fields, and again In the morning we fol- 

 lowed their trail into the foothills and had a capi- 

 tal view of seven superb bulls in their wild estate, 

 as pretty a sight as one might see In California. 

 Who can feel ought save commiseration for a 

 man who, standing on London bridge, could say, 

 "Earth has not anything to show more fair" ? 



Twice during the summer was I told of the 

 presence in the mountains, by men who thought 

 they had seen them, of the mythical ibex. My in- 

 formant, in each instance a ranger, assured me 

 that he had had a good look at the animal, and 

 was sure that It was not a mountain ram. The 

 back-curving horns he said were "as long as his 

 forearm," one added instance of the fact that a 

 fish In the brook Is worth two on the string — If a 

 good story be at stake ! What my informant had 

 seen, of course, was a ewe, or young mountain ram 

 before he had arrived at the age when the horns 

 begin to form their characteristic spiral. As for 

 the great size of the horns, the animal was run- 

 ning away, and every hunter Is aware of the enor- 

 mous proportions which the antlers attain of an 

 escaping elk or deer. How they suddenly shrink 

 when the beast is shot is another story. 



Incidentally, the refuges of southern California 

 will Include the breeding places of the trout in the 



410 



