BEYOND THE TETONS 29 



on in their midst with regard to the wapiti for good- 

 ness knows how long ! And now enough on that point. 



In those days (not so very long ago) when I 

 devoured books on big game hunting to the exclusion, 

 so my friends tell me, of everything else, I classed 

 hunting in any of those distant countries more blessed 

 than we are in the possession of large fauna, first ; 

 and deerstalking in our own islands, second. Since 

 hunting wapiti I have had reason to modify that 

 opinion. I do not by any manner of means speak 

 as an authority, I am simply giving my own personal 

 opinion in the matter ; but if I were now offered 

 my choice between a week's wapiti hunting at 

 the beginning of the season, and a day's stalking 

 in a good Highland forest, I should unhesitatingly 

 choose the latter. 



You are allowed to kill four different species of 

 big game by the Wyoming laws, exclusive of bear, 

 namely, deer, wapiti, sheep, and antelope. Our time 

 was limited, and as we particularly wanted to make 

 certain of the wapiti we went for them first. Were 

 I starting on the hunt again I should certainly, if 

 unrestricted in the matter of time, hunt the wapiti 

 last. The bulls then would be much more likely 

 to have left the heavy timber ; you would there- 

 fore be more likely to see the best heads ; and you 

 would have the pleasure of a stalk in the open, 

 which, to my mind, is worth ten in any other kind of 

 country. The best bulls, too, which always remain 

 up in the Park, where they know they are safe as 



