CHAPTER V. 



A PERILOUS EXPERIENCE. 



THREE BEARS ANXIOUS FOR GORE THE COMPANY RATTLED WE TRY 

 THE EFFECT OF NOISE AND BLUSTER THE GRIZZLYS RETIRE 

 MIKE AROUSES THE ANGER OF AN OLD SHE-BEAR A RACE FOR LIFE 

 HUFFMAN AND I TO THE RESCUE TWO OUT OF THREE 

 KILLED A FINE VIEW OF THE ROCKIES MORE SPORT THE 

 CAMP BROKEN UP WE START FOR HOME. 



AND now to return to my narrative. Either one of the 

 eight balls that entered the elk's carcass would have caused 

 his death in time, but I was anxious to get him down as near 

 my temporary camp as possible, and for that purpose I kept 

 on shooting until I saw that he had more lead than he could 

 carry away. 



It is frequently stated that the wapiti is the easiest of all 

 the cervidae to kill, that he gives up sooner after being hit 

 than any other member of the family. But my experience 

 does not lead me to think so. Six of these eight bullets 

 passed entirely through his body and yet he lived nearly half 

 an hour after the last one was fired. His was an exceptional 

 case of vitality, but all the others that I have killed or seen 

 killed required very hard hitting and in vital parts to bring 

 them down. 



After admiring my prize to my entire satisfaction, I re- 

 turned to my temporary camp to wait for Huffman and the 

 others of the party. They put in an appearance about noon. 

 Huffman made his views of the two elk ; we cut them up 

 and packed the best of the meat on one of his pack-horses, 

 and he, Mike and I went up to the other carcass. When we 



