WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 83 



thick upon the ground ; it was like a small battle- 

 field ; a case of prairie murder, as the captain 

 said. By Jove, how we did work that afternoon, 

 gralloching the deer ! It was dark by the time we 

 had got through our task, and with bent and 

 aching backs and blunted knives had returned to 

 camp, about the dirtiest, most blood-stained, 

 hungriest, happiest, most contented, and most 

 disreputable-looking crowd to be found anywhere 

 in the great territories of the West. I shall never 

 participate in such a day's sport as that again. 

 It was wonderful, because it partook of the double 

 nature of stalking and running on horseback, for 

 we had our stalk first, and killed five or six wapiti 

 on foot, and then we had our run and killed a 

 lot more. The next two days we were busily 

 engaged in cutting up the meat with axes and 

 taking it into camp, for it must not be supposed 

 that an ounce of all that meat was wasted ; we 

 hauled every bit of it out to the fort, where the 

 demand for fresh venison greatly exceeded our 

 supply. 



The worst of killing so much game in a short 

 time is that it brings one's hunt to a premature 

 end. We had got all the meat we could carry, 

 and there was nothing for us to do but hitch up 



