236 The Wilderness Hunter 



strike enough lucky days amply to repay him for 

 his trouble. 



On this Shoshone trip I fired fifty-eight shots. 

 In preference to using the knife I generally break 

 the neck of an elk which is still struggling; and I 

 fire at one as long as it can stand, preferring to waste 

 a few extra bullets, rather than see an occasional 

 head of game escape. In consequence of these two 

 traits the nine elk I got (two running at sixty and 

 eighty yards, the others standing, at from thirty to 

 a hundred) cost me twenty-three bullets; and I 

 missed three shots all three, it is but fair to say, 

 difficult ones. I also cut off the heads of seventeen 

 grouse, with twenty-two shots ; and killed two ducks 

 with ten shots fifty-eight in all. On the Bighorn 

 trip I used a hundred and two cartridges. On no 

 other trip did I use fifty. 



To me still-hunting elk in the mountains, when 

 they are calling, is one of the most attractive of 

 sports, not only because of the size and stately beauty 

 of the quarry and the grand nature of the trophy, 

 but because of the magnificence of the scenery, and 

 the stirring, manly, exciting nature of the chase it- 

 self. It yields more vigorous enjoyment than does 

 lurking stealthily through the grand but gloomy 

 monotony of the marshy woodland where dwells the 

 moose. The climbing among the steep forest-clad 

 and glade-strewn mountains is just difficult enough 

 thoroughly to test soundness in wind and limb, while 



