12 



deer, and in colour rather like a roe in his winter 

 coat. 



A couple of days later a bear with an explorative 

 bent decided to see what the bottom of the Grand 

 Canyon was like ; but, as many another before him, 

 he found the downward road the easier, and had to 

 spend twenty-four hours meditating 011 his humiliat- 

 ing position before being able to regain his original 

 status. 



Though I came across but few wapiti myself in 

 the Park, it was here that old Yarnall, of whom I 

 shall speak again, noticed a curious incident. He 

 was camped in Hayden Valley, a favourite place 

 for these animals, and one evening, about a mile 

 distant saw fifteen full-grown bulls. He watched 

 them for some time and noticed that they were all 

 in the velvet. The next morning they were still 

 there, but six of the biggest bulls had lost their 

 velvet, and it was the white flashing horns which 

 first caught his eye. Curiosity prompting him, he 

 rode over to the spot where they had been standing, 

 but no trace of any velvet could he find, and he 

 declares that they must have eaten it. To support 

 this statement he instanced the case of a black- 

 tail buck which a friend of his kept in confinement. 

 He too got rid of his velvet one night, and not a 

 strip of it was discovered in the small paddock where 

 he lived. Unless he really did eat it, its disappear- 

 ance is something of a mystery. Like most tame 

 deer he finally turned savage and had to be killed. 



