CHAPTER IV 



STILL-HUNTING ELK ON THE MOUNTAIN 



AFTER the buffalo the elk are the first animals 

 to disappear from a country when it is settled. 

 This arises from their size and consequent conspic- 

 uousness, and the eagerness with which they are 

 followed by hunters; and also because of their gre- 

 gariousness and their occasional fits of stupid panic 

 during whose continuance hunters can now and then 

 work great slaughter in a herd. Five years ago elk 

 were abundant in the valley of the Little Missouri, 

 and in fall were found wandering in great bands of 

 over a hundred individuals each. But they have 

 now vanished completely, except that one or two 

 may still lurk in some of the most remote and 

 broken places, where there are deep, wooded ravines. 

 Formerly the elk were plentiful all over the plains, 

 coming down into them in great bands during the 

 fall months and traversing their entire extent. But 

 the incoming of hunters and cattlemen has driven 

 them off the ground as completely as the buffalo; 

 unlike the latter, however, .they are still very com- 

 mon in the dense woods that cover the Rocky 

 Mountains and the other great Western chains. In 

 the old days running elk on horseback was a highly 



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