280 Still-Hunting Elk. 



course of a day, and so they soon wear regular, well- 

 beaten paths in any place where they are at all plentiful. 



The band I was following had, as is their custom, all 

 run together into a wedge-shaped mass when I fired, and 

 crashed off through the woods in a bunch during the first 

 moments of alarm. The footprints in the soil showed 

 that they had in the beginning taken a plunging gallop, 

 but after a few strides had settled into the swinging, 

 ground-covering trot that is the elk's most natural and 

 characteristic gait. A band of elk when alarmed is likely 

 to go twenty miles without halting ; but these had prob- 

 ably been very little molested, and there was a chance 

 that they would not go far without stopping. After 

 getting through the first grove, the huddled herd had 

 straightened itself out into single file, and trotted off in a 

 nearly straight line. A mile or two of ground having 

 been passed over in this way, the animals had slackened 

 their pace into a walk, evidently making up their minds 

 that they were out of danger. Soon afterwards they had 

 begun to go slower, and to scatter out on each side, 

 browsing or grazing. 



It was not difficult work to follow up the band at 

 first. While trotting, their sharp hoofs came down with 

 sufficient force to leave very distinct footprints, and, 

 moreover, the trail was the more readily made out as 

 all the animals trod nearly in each other's steps. But 

 when the band spread out the tracking was much 

 harder, as each single one, walking slowly along, 

 merely made here and there a slight scrape in the 

 soil or a faint indentation in the bed of pine needles. 



