A LAND OF TRAGIC MEMORIES 233 



summer ranges in higher altitudes. When the 

 settler came with his repeating rifle the herd 

 began noticeably to diminish with each annual 

 migration, until five years ago its last remnant, 

 numbering eighty-eight, passed out of the 

 canon, and no member of it ever returned. 



Booth observed and counted these eighty- 

 eight when they came down the canon and his 

 curiosity led him to inquire their fate. He 

 learned definitely where ranchmen had killed 

 eighty-six of them. The other two apparently 

 escaped, but no elk have since come out of the 

 canon or been seen upon the ancient elk range 

 in the valley. 



The rain at our level had been snow in the 

 higher altitudes. The weather turned cold and 

 the morning was crisp with frost when I 

 turned into the canon to resume my journey. 

 The sun shone brilliantly, and the atmosphere 

 possessed to a high degree that tonic, transpar- 

 ent quality so characteristic of Rocky Mountain 

 regions. These conditions combined to make 

 the day ideal. 



While now and again the trail dropped down 

 close to the water, for the most part it hung 

 upon the edge of a steep mountainside or well- 

 nigh perpendicular cliff several hundred feet 

 above the rushing river. It was not, however, in 



