3 14 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



for its charm is heightened by the wild and deso 

 late surroundings. It has the sustained, varied mel 

 ody of some bird songs, with, of course, a hundred 

 fold greater power. Now and then, however, the 

 performance is marred by the elk s apparently get 

 ting out of breath toward the close, and winding up 

 with two or three gasping notes which have an un 

 pleasantly mule-like sound. 



The great pine-clad mountains, their forests 

 studded with open glades, were the best of places 

 for the still - hunter s craft. Going noiselessly 

 through them in our dull-colored buckskin and noise 

 less moccasins, we kept getting glimpses, as it were, 

 of the inner life of the mountains. Each animal 

 that we saw had its own individuality. Aside 

 from the thrill and tingle that a hunter experiences 

 at the sight of his game, I by degrees grew to feel 

 as if I had a personal interest in the different traits 

 and habits of the wild creatures. The characters of 

 the animals differed widely, and the differences were 

 typified by their actions; and it was pleasant to 

 watch them in their own homes, myself unseen, 

 when after stealthy, silent progress through the 

 sombre and soundless depths of the woods I came 

 upon them going about the ordinary business of 

 their lives. The lumbering, self-confident gait of 

 the bears, their burly strength, and their half-humor 

 ous, half-ferocious look, gave me a real insight into 

 their character; and I never was more impressed by 

 the exhibition of vast, physical power, than when 

 watching from an ambush a grisly burying or cov- 



