192 The Wilderness Hunter. 



and does not get really under way for two or three 

 hundred yards ; but, when once fairly started, he may go 

 several miles, even though mortally wounded ; therefore, 

 the hunter, after his first shot, should run forward as fast 

 as he can, and shoot again and again until the quarry 

 drops. In this way many animals that would otherwise 

 be lost are obtained, especially by the man who has a 

 repeating-rifle. Nevertheless the hunter should beware 

 of being led astray by the ease with which he can fire half 

 a dozen shots from his repeater ; and he should aim as 

 carefully with each shot as if it were his last. No possible 

 rapidity of fire can atone for habitual carelessness of aim 

 with the first shot. 



The elk I thus slew was a giant. His body was the size 

 of a steer's, and his antlers, though not unusually long, 

 were very massive and heavy. He lay in a glade, on the 

 edge of a great cliff. Standing on its brink we over- 

 looked a most beautiful country, the home of all homes 

 for the elk : a wilderness of mountains, the immense ever- 

 green forest broken by park and glade, by meadow and 

 pasture, by bare hill-side and barren table-land. Some 

 five miles off lay the sheet of water known to the old 

 hunters as Spotted Lake ; two or three shallow, sedgy 

 places, and spots of geyser formation, made pale green 

 blotches on its wind-rippled surface. Far to the south- 

 west, in daring beauty and majesty, the grand domes and 

 lofty spires of the Tetons shot into the blue sky. Too 

 sheer for the snow to rest on their sides, it yet filled the 

 rents in their rough flanks, and lay deep between the 

 towering pinnacles of dark rock. 



