44 STALKS ABROAD 



is between the devil and the deep sea. Unless he 

 gets a personal recommendation from someone who has 

 hunted with a reliable guide, he may find himself 

 badly let in ; whereas if he engages no one at all, 

 on reaching his starting point for the hunt he may 

 find all the good guides already engaged. 



As it was, we had to blaze our way out of the 

 timber and finally reached the ridge from which we 

 had started, getting back to camp about ten o'clock. 

 We rode up in the afternoon and packed the head 

 down before dark. 



Such was wapiti hunting as I found it : yet it 

 has many a charm. It is hard to appreciate the 

 beauties of a fir wood when you are slipping amongst 

 fallen timber and barking your shins at every step : 

 afterwards, as you look back along the trail you have 

 covered, you forget the hardships and see only the 

 glamour of a day which will not return. 



It seems unlikely that I shall ever look upon 

 the Tetons again, or go riding through the fir woods 

 over which they stand sentinel. Yet often as I sit 

 of an evening before the fire I shall think of them as 

 I first saw them, rising in changeless majesty from 

 a sea of mist, the pale beauty of an evening sky 

 beyond : and, too, when I wake with a start in 

 the night watches and seem to hear again some 

 great bull's challenging bugle go ringing out upon 

 the stillness of the dawn. 



