An Elk-Hunt at Two-Ocean Pass 235 



ternations of good and bad luck, it may fairly stand 

 as the type of a dozen such hunts I have made. 

 Twice I have been much more successful; the dif 

 ference being due to sheer luck, as I hunted equally 

 hard in all three instances. Thus on this trip I 

 killed and saw nothing but elk; yet the other mem 

 bers of the party either saw, or saw fresh signs of, 

 not only blacktail deer, but sheep, bear, bison, moose, 

 cougar, and wolf. Now in 1889 ^ hunted over al 

 most precisely similar country, only further to the 

 northwest, on the boundary between Idaho and 

 Montana, and, with the exception of sheep, I stum 

 bled on all the animals mentioned, and white goat 

 in addition, so that my bag of twelve head actually 

 included eight species much the best bag I ever 

 made, and the only one that could really be called 

 out of the common. In 1884, on a trip to the Big 

 horn Mountains, I killed three bear, six elk and 

 six deer. In laying in the winter stock of meat for 

 my ranch I often far excelled these figures as far 

 as mere numbers went; but on no other regular 

 hunting trip, where the quality and not the quantity 

 of the game was the prime consideration, have I 

 ever equaled them ; and on several where I worked 

 hardest I hardly averaged a head a week. The 

 occasional days or weeks of phenomenal luck are 

 more than earned by the many others where no 

 luck whatever follows the very hardest work. Yet 

 if a man hunts with steady resolution he is apt to 



