BEYOND THE TETONS 35 



enough to realise this state of affairs at an early 

 date, and as the guides said, "daren't show their 

 blankety-blank noses outside the ditto ditto timber." 

 It may still be possible in a year when all the heads 

 are good to obtain bulls with really first-class heads, 

 equal to those which fortunate hunters killed fifteen 

 or twenty years ago ; but as Huntley Wright used 

 to say : "It is open to discussion ! " It would at 

 any rate be unlikely that a casual sportsman coming 

 into the country for the first time would get one. 

 If he did he would have his luck to thank before 

 anything else ; and this though he went prepared 

 to spend the entire season hunting wapiti and 

 nothing else. 



It will be seen therefore that hunting wapiti, 

 in comparison with the higher forms of big game 

 hunting, such for instance as the pursuit of sheep 

 in British Columbia, is a poor form of sport. In- 

 deed, if a man came to me saying that he intended 

 hunting them, I would strongly urge him to add 

 a little to his prospective expenses and take some 

 sheep ground in Sutherlandshire, where, as the 

 guide-books say, " red deer are occasionally to be 

 met with " ; he would have a much better run for 

 his money. 



Still the sport is but a tithe of the enjoyment 

 which one gets from a trip of this kind, and I feel 

 rather a brute to be picking holes in it. Perhaps 

 the best idea I can give of it is to describe the 

 way in which I got my second bull. 



