TWENTY YEARS IN THE ROCKIES. 287 



A sound sleep made us eager for the day's sport. Our 

 horses were soon fed and saddled. After a splendid break- 

 fast, we started up the divide. When we arrived at the top, 

 we took different routes, but the whole day passed and we 

 all came home empty-handed. Fender had seen two bears 

 and had come across a new partner who was hunting in the 

 mountains, and who stayed all night with us. The next day 

 Mr. Woods made a splendid run, and, by a flank movement, 

 bagged two black-tail deer, claiming second honors for this. 

 The rest of the party had a hard day and accomplished 

 nothing. 



That evening I told Cal I believed our old camp would 

 be a good place to visit, so we concluded to visit it and took 

 that course and rode directly to the spring, to find that 

 some forty head of elks had watered there. In the night we 

 took the trail which led directly through the dense woods 

 and deep snow toward the mountains. We carefully fol- 

 lowed the trail for five or six miles, until we could see in 

 the distance, a large south hillside with a dense growth of 

 burnt timber. Cal said that the band of elks of which we 

 were in pursuit might be lying on the south side sunning 

 themselves, and that we must be very careful or we would 

 not get a shot at them. 



So as to make little noise, we tied our horses to the 

 first trees, and proceeded up the mountain. As we were 

 rounding a large slide of rocks I discovered that the trail 

 divided, about half the number going to the right while the 

 other half turned to the left. Cal was on my right and we 

 were each straining every nerve, perspiring from every 

 pore, when our elks broke cover. Cal's old Winchester 

 spoke to one on the right just as I saw a handsome cow 

 struggling to gain the top of the divide. 



I threw myself down and fired at fully three hundred 



