228 The Wilderness Hunter 



two being very hurried snapshots at animals running 

 in thick timber, the other a running-shot in the open, 

 at over two hundred yards ; and I missed all three. 

 On most days I saw no bull worth shooting; the 

 two or three I did see or hear we failed to stalk, 

 the light, shifty wind baffling us, or else an outlying 

 cow which we had not seen giving the alarm. There 

 were many blue and a few ruffed grouse in the 

 woods, and I occasionally shot off the heads of a 

 couple on my way homeward in the evening. In 

 racing after one elk, I leaped across a gully and so 

 bruised and twisted my heel on a rock that, for the 

 remainder of my stay in the mountains, I had to 

 walk on the fore part of that foot. This did not in 

 terfere much with my walking, however, except in 

 going down-hill. 



Our ill success was in part due to sheer bad luck ; 

 but the chief element therein was the presence of a 

 great hunting-party of Shoshone Indians. Split into 

 bands of eight or ten each, they scoured the whole 

 country on their tough, sure-footed ponies. They 

 always hunted on horseback, and followed the elk 

 at full speed wherever they went. Their method of 

 hunting was to organize great drives, the riders 

 strung in lines far apart; they signaled to one an 

 other by means of willow whistles, with which they 

 also imitated the calling of the bull elk, thus tolling 

 the animals to them, or making them betray their 

 whereabout. As they slew whatever they could, but 



