THE YELLOWSTONE PARK 8 



under unique conditions. I confess that I was dis- 

 appointed. The animals are there all right, but it 

 is, practically speaking, hopeless, when one's time is 

 limited, to attempt to see much of them in August 

 and September. The best season would undoubtedly 

 be the winter, but it would be necessary to obtain 

 special permission to visit the Park then. It is 

 possible to stay at the Mammoth Hot Springs for 

 a few weeks after the season closes (about the third 

 week in September) or before it commences (1st June) ; 

 and this latter would be the better of tbe two, as 

 the animals would not have gone back to the hills 

 after wintering in the valleys. 



Nearly every species of American game is repre- 

 sented, with the exception of the Kocky Mountain 

 goat, the caribou, and the musk-ox. Wapiti (or, 

 as they are universally misnamed in America, elk) 

 are the most plentiful, though owing to the nature 

 of the ground they do not winter here but go 

 south, through the timber reserve, into the Jackson's 

 Hole country. I only saw one unenclosed wapiti 

 all the time I was in the Park, and that was a 

 two-year-old bull in the Hayden Valley. 



The first animals which we came across were a 

 little bunch of antelope feeding close to the entrance 

 of the Park at Gardiner. Although very interested 

 in seeing them, I did not at the time pay them 

 the attention I found out afterwards they deserved ; 

 for the pronghorn is one of the most sporting little 

 beasts alive, and his head a trophy of which any 



