TURKEY HUNTING ON A NEW PLAN. 411 



massive horns knocked him over, and in an instant 

 more the beast had stamped him to death. 



We finished the elk by a united volley, and 

 added him to our trophies. The horns, resting upon 

 their tips, gave space for one of our Mexicans, five 

 feet two in stature, to pass beneath them erect. Elk 

 hairs are remarkably elastic. Single ones obtained 

 from this specimen stretched by trial with the fingers, 

 and detached from the skin so easily that the latter 

 seemed worthless. 



During the day we found and secured the remains 

 of two saurians one about eight and the other ten 

 feet in length, and also the tooth of a fossil horse, 

 quite a number of curious bubble-shaped pieces of 

 iron pyrites, and some fine petrifactions, in the way 

 of butternuts and fragments of trees. The soft, white 

 limestone, mentioned more than once before in this 

 record of our expedition, appeared along our paths 

 in fine outcrops, and contained very perfect fossil 

 shells. 



Abe, our guide, told us that a year or two pre- 

 vious, during a winter of unusual severity, he had 

 found a flock of Rocky Mountain sheep feeding near 

 the Solomon. This was the only instance which 

 came to our knowledge of that animal having been 

 seen upon the plains. 



We had an amusing experience, before night, with 

 turkeys, hunting them in novel style. The birds 

 were wild from recent pursuit, and, the instant they 

 saw us, would leave the narrow fringe of timber, and 

 run off into the ravines. Then would commence a 

 ludicrous chase, each rider plying spurs, and pur- 



