294 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



esteemed form of plains sport; but now that it has 

 become a beast of the timber and the craggy ground, 

 instead of a beast of the open, level prairie, it is 

 followed almost solely on foot and with the rifle. 

 Its sense of smell is very acute, and it has good 

 eyes and quick ears ; and its wanness makes it under 

 ordinary circumstances very difficult to approach. 

 But it is subject to fits of panic folly, and during 

 their continuance great numbers can be destroyed. 

 A band places almost as much reliance upon the 

 leaders as does a flock of sheep; and if the leaders 

 are shot down, the others will huddle together in 

 a terrified mass, seemingly unable to make up their 

 minds in which direction to flee. When one, more 

 bold than the rest, does at last step out, the hidden 

 hunter s at once shooting it down will produce a 

 fresh panic; I have known of twenty elk (or wapiti, 

 as they are occasionally called) being thus procured 

 out of one band. And at times they show a curious 

 indifference to danger, running up on a hunter who 

 is in plain sight, or standing still for a few fatal 

 seconds to gaze at one that unexpectedly appears. 

 In spite of its size and strength and great branch 

 ing antlers, the elk is but little more dangerous to 

 the hunter than is an ordinary buck. Once, in 

 coming up to a wounded one, I had it strike at me 

 with its forefeet, bristling up the hair on the neck, 

 and making a harsh, grating noise with its teeth; 

 as its back was broken it could not get at me, but 

 the savage glare in its eyes left me no doubt as 

 to its intentions. Only in a single instance have 



