Big Game in the Rockies 



mud. The elk has a great deal of natural 

 curiosity, and I have seen extraordinary in- 

 stances of this where they had been but 

 little hunted or alarmed. My friend Phillips, 

 of Washington, who was with me, will vouch 

 for the veracity of this story, which I give 

 as an example: We were wandering along 

 the top of the mountain, some nine thou- 

 sand feet up, trying to stalk some elk, not to 

 shoot them, but to photograph them. We 

 jumped a small band of bulls, numbering about 

 sixteen. They trotted off slowly, frequently 

 stopping to look back, until all but two large 

 bulls had disappeared. These walked slowly 

 back to within fifty yards of where we were 

 standing, and stopped, facing us. 



It was truly one of the most charming 

 sights one could have wished for, to have those 

 graceful, sleek creatures almost close enough 

 to caress. Presently, with a defiant snort, and 

 with a succession of short barks, they would 

 move away and come back again, repeating 

 these manoeuvers over and over again, until 

 we got tired of trying to look like a brace of 

 marble posts and sat down. We thought this 

 would frighten them, but it did not, and once 



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