The Wapiti 199 



the cliff; I guess it's an elk" (he never had seen one 

 before) ; and the next moment, as old Tompkins ex- 

 pressed it, "the elk came bilin' out of the coulie." 

 Old Tompkins had a rifle on this occasion and the 

 sight of game always drove him crazy; as I aimed 

 I heard Dow telling him "to let the boss do the 

 shooting" : and I killed the elk to a savage inter- 

 jectional accompaniment of threats delivered at old 

 man Tompkins between the shots. 



Elk are sooner killed off than any other game 

 save buffalo, but this is due to their size and the 

 nature of the ground they frequent rather than to 

 their lack of shyness. They like open woodland, or 

 mountainous park country, or hills riven by timber 

 coulies ; and such ground is the most favorable to 

 the hunter, and the most attractive in which to 

 hunt. On the other hand moose, for instance, live 

 in such dense cover that it is very difficult to get 

 at them; when elk are driven by incessant persecu- 

 tion to take refuge in similar fastnesses they become 

 almost as hard to kill. In fact, in this respect the 

 elk stands to the moose much as the blacktail stands 

 to the whitetail. The moose and whitetail are some- 

 what warier than' the elk and blacktail ; but it is the 

 nature of the ground which they inhabit that tells 

 most in their favor. On the other hand, as compared 

 to the blacktail, it is only the elk's size which puts 

 it at a disadvantage in the struggle for life when the 

 rifle-bearing hunter appears on the scene. It is 



