In the Old Rockies 



sheep, for it was then an excellent sheep country. 

 I started before daybreak, and shortly after sun- 

 rise passed a little glade or grassy open space in a 

 pine forest, in which open space had fallen a good 

 bull elk, which Keller and I had killed two 

 weeks before, the head and horns of which were 

 hung up quite high between two small pine trees 

 which grew from the same stump on the edge of 

 the little glade. As I passed by this elk carcass I 

 noticed that something had been feeding on it. 

 Whatever animal it was, it had been so dainty in 

 its feeding that I suspected it was a mountain lion 

 rather than a bear, although I knew the former's 

 predilection for freshly killed meat. All day I 

 hunted faithfully, and going to the two buffalo 

 carcasses on the high divide found that bears had 

 visited and were feeding on them. After picking 

 out a good place where we could camp when we 

 should go to watch these carcasses, as we had 

 planned to do as soon as we ascertained that bears 

 had found them, I hunted carefully most of the 

 way back to camp. I do not remember ever hav- 

 ing taken a much longer walk than on this occasion 

 or having hunted more faithfully, yet not a hair or 

 a hoof of living animal did I see. Recognizing 

 by a certain big red cliff that I was near the spot 

 where the elk carcass lay, I concluded, as it was 



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