300 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



course no load could be put upon him, but he man- 

 aged to limp along behind the other horses, and 

 actually in the end reached the ranch on the Little 

 Missouri three hundred miles off. No sooner had 

 he got there and been turned loose to rest than he 

 fell down a big washout and broke his neck. An- 

 other time one of the mares a homely beast with 

 a head like a earners managed to flounder into 

 the very centre of a mud-hole, and we spent the bet- 

 ter part of a morning in fishing her out. 



It was on the second day of our journey into the 

 mountains, while leading the pack-ponies down the 

 precipitous side of a steep valley, that I obtained 

 my first sight of elk. The trail wound through a 

 forest of tall, slender pines, standing very close to- 

 gether, and with dead trees lying in every direction. 

 The narrow trunks or overhanging limbs threatened 

 to scrape off the packs at every moment, as the 

 ponies hopped and scrambled over the fallen trunks ; 

 and it was difficult work, and most trying to the 

 temper, to keep them going along straight and 

 prevent them from wandering off to one side 

 or the other. At last we got out into a succes- 

 sion of small, open glades, with boggy spots in 

 them; the lowest glade was of some size, and as 

 we reached it we saw a small band of cow elk dis- 

 appearing into the woods on its other edge. I was 

 riding a restive horse, and when I tried to jump off 

 to shoot, it reared and turned round, before I could 

 get my left foot out of the stirrup; when I at last 

 got free I could get a glimpse of but one elk, van- 



