An Elk-Hunt at Two-Ocean Pass. 187 



Here and there we were helped by well-beaten elk-trails, 

 which we could follow for several hundred yards at a time. 

 On one narrow pine-clad ledge, we met a spike bull face 

 to face ; and in scrambling down a very steep, bare, rock- 

 strewn shoulder the loose stones started by the horses' 

 hoofs, bounding in great leaps to the forest below, dis- 

 lodged two cows. 



As evening fell, we reached the bottom, and pitched 

 camp in a beautiful point of open pine forest, thrust out 

 into the meadow. There was good shelter, and plenty 

 of wood, water, and grass ; we built a huge fire and put 

 up our tents, scattering them in likely places among the 

 pines, which grew far apart and without undergrowth. 

 We dried our steaming clothes, and ate a hearty supper 

 of elk-meat ; then we turned into our beds, warm and 

 dry, and slept soundly under the canvas, while all night 

 long the storm roared without. Next morning it still 

 stormed fitfully ; the high peaks and ridges round about 

 were all capped with snow. Woody and I started on foot 

 for an all-day tramp ; the amount of game seen the day 

 before showed that we were in a good elk-country, where 

 the elk had been so little disturbed that they were travel- 

 ling, feeding, and whistling in daylight. For three hours 

 we walked across the forest-clad spurs of the foot-hills. 

 We roused a small band of elk in thick timber ; but they 

 rushed off before we saw them, with much smashing of 

 dead branches. Then we climbed to the summit of the 

 range. The wind was light and baffling ; it blew from 

 all points, veering every few minutes. There were oc- 

 casional rain-squalls ; our feet and legs were well soaked ; 



