TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 253 



had broken his skull. Any of the shots would have killed 

 him, but not until after he could have killed half-a-dozen 

 men. He weighed about five hundred pounds, and was as 

 vicious an animal as I ever saw, fighting until the last spark 

 of life had fled. I soon had his skin off, and found his head 

 and shoulders were a mass of blood and broken bones. 



This day revealed the whereabouts of considerable 

 game, and Mr. Huffman had flushed a large band of elks of 

 all ages. They were three separate bands, and he had ex- 

 hausted his supply of cartridges at seventy-five to a hundred 

 yards distance, but had no elk to show, although he had 

 wounded several. We put in two days in hunting this band, 

 which had gone to the southwest. The yard where they 

 camped showed that there were nearly one hundred and fifty 

 of them roaming around. As the rutting season had com- 

 menced, they were splitting up. The bulls were herding the 

 cows in all directions, and I knew it would be no use to follow 

 them, but would be better to hunt a new band. 



We were getting desperate now, for our supply of meat 

 was getting low, so we set out up the north mountain side. 

 After a hard climb we reached the quaking-asps and springs 

 of water. We paired off and had not gone far when we 

 heard the elk tearing through the bushes, and soon Shield's 

 rifle rang out three times in quick succession. All was now 

 confusion. Shield had killed a cow and wounded a young 

 bull. Sawyer and I had came close together, and I could 

 hear some animal going in his direction, when his old 50 

 Winchester belched its compliments with an explosive bang. 

 I soon reached him, but the fog was so dense that I could see 

 nothing, but presently we found a large cow elk, with one 

 of her hind legs almost torn from her body. 



We all returned to camp thoroughly soaked. After sup- 

 per Shields supplied himself with matches, an oilcloth coat 



