2 72 Still-Hunting Elk. 



coming down into them in great bands during the fall 

 months and traversing their entire extent. But the in- 

 coming of hunters and cattle-men has driven them off the 

 ground as completely as the buffalo ; unlike the latter, 

 however, they are still very common in the dense woods 

 that cover the Rocky Mountains and the other great 

 western chains. In the old days running elk on horse- 

 back was a highly 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 wariness makes it under 

 ordinary circumstances very difficult to approach. But it 

 is subject to fits of panic folly, and during their continu- 

 ance 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 branching 

 antlers, the elk is but little more dangerous to the hunter 



