24 Sport and Life. 



the events to which one has hitherto been leading up namely, the 

 winter sport which fell to our share after reaching our goal and 

 taking up our quarters in a cave-like " dug-out," which proved the 

 best possible shelter in the extremely severe weather which set in 

 later on in November. 



In the days I am speaking of there was, as the reader will 

 probably have gleaned for himself, no difficulty whatever about 

 finding and shooting game, but rather to remember constantly the 

 duty one owed to prolific Nature of not killing more than one could 

 make use of, and of thus wasting life merely for the sake of 

 gratifying that deplorable lust of killing. 



My chief aim in visiting the Rockies so repeatedly was to bag 

 big heads. To get a dozen wapiti antlers over 6oin. in length, 

 or a like number of bighorn with a circumference of ijin.and i8in., 

 meant the securing of prizes which only a few sportsmen who 

 have visited the Rockies have been able to obtain. And while 

 I will not deny that, notwithstanding great care and discrimination 

 in the selection of one's quarry, one now and again killed animals 

 which, when they lay dead on the ground before one, turned out to 

 be smaller than one thought, and whose trophies therefore would 

 not warrant transportation ; these were occurrences which one tried 

 to avoid as much as possible. Transporting these big heads was 

 the chief difficulty in my case, as only a few horses were available 

 for that duty. Transporting wapiti antlers on pack-horses, often 

 for weeks at a time, is a most troublesome job, not only because 

 one cannot get more than two heads on one horse, but on account 

 of their bulk, which makes travel through timbered mountain country 

 most difficult, if not entirely impossible. It is not always the easiest 

 sacrifice after a long stalk, or a weary day's scramble on the rocky 

 ledges which are the home of the bighorn, to stay the hand which 

 is instinctively clutching the rifle, and curb that keen desire to make 

 the proud quarry one's own. The head the animal bears is, as the 

 glasses tell one, a good one, but not a " best" one, and as there is 

 more than enough venison in camp already, the beast must not be 

 killed. Under these circumstances, it was therefore a pleasant 



