An Elk-Hunt at Two-Ocean Pass 227 



Ferguson had his innings. The day after I killed 

 this bull he shot two fine mountain rams; and dur- 

 ing the remainder of our hunt he killed five elk, 

 one cow, for meat, and four good bulls. The two 

 rams were with three others, all old and with fine 

 horns; Ferguson peeped over a lofty precipice and 

 saw them coming up it only fifty yards below him. 

 His first two and finest bulls were obtained by hard 

 running and good shooting; the herds were on the 

 move at the time, and only his speed of foot and 

 soundness of wind enabled him to get near enough 

 for a shot. One herd started before he got close, 

 and he killed the master bull by a shot right through 

 the heart, as it trotted past, a hundred and fifty 

 yards distant. 



As for me, during the next ten days I killed noth- 

 ing save one cow for meat ; and this though I hunted 

 hard every day from morning till night, no matter 

 what the weather. It was stormy, with hail and 

 .snow almost every day; and after working hard 

 from dawn until nightfall, laboriously climbing the 

 slippery mountain-sides, walking through the wet 

 woods, and struggling across the bare plateaus and 

 cliff-shoulders, while the violent blasts of wind 

 drove the frozen rain in our faces, we would come 

 in after dusk wet through and chilled to the mar- 

 row. Even when it rained in the valleys it snowed 

 on the mountain-tops, and there was no use trying 

 to keep our feet dry. I got three shots at bull elk, 



