WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 89 



and round, up and down, in and out, for hours, 

 and it was more by good luck than good manage- 

 ment that we hit upon the river and got safe 

 home. 



The prairie is the place to go to if you want to 

 make a big bag, but for true sport commend me 

 to the forest and the hills. To me at least there 

 is infinitely more charm in stalking wapiti among 

 the mountains, in the magnificent scenery to be 

 found there, than in running them on the plains. 

 The plains, although they give one a sense of 

 freedom and a certain exaltation from their im- 

 mensity, yet are dismal and melancholy, and 

 running elk, although intensely exciting, is scarcely 

 a legitimate and sportsmanUke way of hunting 

 such a noble beast. But in the mountains, stalking 

 elk, picking out a good stag and creeping up to 

 him, is as fine a sport as can be obtained anywhere 

 in the world ; in fact, it is like deerstalking in 

 Scotland, with everything in grand proportions, 

 mountains many thousand feet in height instead of 

 hills of a few hundred, and a magnificent animal 

 weighing 600 or 800 pounds instead of a com- 

 paratively small deer which would not turn the 

 scale at twenty stone. 



Wapiti used to be, and I suppose still are. 



