214 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



hesitates in the first moments of surprise and 

 fright, and does not get really under way for 

 two or three hundred yards ; but, when once 

 fairly started, he may go several miles, even 

 though mortally wounded ; therefore, the 

 hunter, after his first shot, should run forward 

 as fast as he can, and shoot again and again 

 until the quarry drops. In this way many 

 animals that would otherwise be lost are 

 obtained, especially by the man who has a 

 repeating-rifle. Nevertheless the hunter 

 should beware of being led astray by the ease 

 with which he can fire half a dozen shots from 

 his repeater ; and he should aim as carefully 

 with each shot as if it were his last. No pos- 

 sible rapidity of fire can atone for habitual 

 carelessness of aim with the first shot. 



The elk I thus slew was a giant. His body 

 was the size of a steer's, and his antlers, 

 though not unusually long, were very massive 

 and heavy. He lay in a glade, on the edge 

 of a great cliff. Standing on its brink we 

 overlooked a most beautiful country, the 

 home of all homes for the elk : a wilderness 

 of mountains, the immense evergreen forest 

 broken by park and glade, by meadow and 

 pasture, by bare hill-side and barren table- 

 land. Some five miles off lay the sheet of 

 water known to the old hunters as Spotted 

 Lake ; two or three shallow, sedgy places, 

 and spots of geyser formation, made pale 

 green blotches on its wind-rippled surface. 

 Far to the southwest, in daring beauty and 

 majesty, the grand domes and lofty spires of 

 the Tetons shot into the blue sky. Too sheer 

 for the snow to rest on their sides, it yet filled 



