84 riONEER LIFE ; OR, 



bo near as to frighten him. We passed by him as 

 cautiously as possible, built a fire and called off the 

 dogs. We thought that the elk would then come 

 oft* himself, during the night. Blackwell and my 

 brother, however, became impatient, and wanted to 

 see the elk. I consented but desired them not to 

 disturb him, and to' return soon. When they came 

 within sight of the elk, Blackwell observed that, 

 there was a good chance to rope him, and my bro- 

 ther consented to try. They slipped the noose over 

 his head without much difficulty, with the aid of a 

 pole. They then attempted to draw the noose tight, 

 and at the same moment the dogs seized the elk in 

 the rear, when he sprang with one of the dogs 

 clinging to him, down the precipice. At a distance 

 of four hundred feet, he struck upon a sheet of ice 

 which had been formed by water falling from the 

 rocks above, from which he bounded, and slid seven 

 nundred feet, stopping in a snow-bank, four hundred 

 feet above the creek, three hundred of which was a 

 sheet of frozen snow, and below that a perpendicular 

 precipice of one hundred feet. I heard the plunge 

 and suspected the truth. The men soon returned, 

 and I asked what was the matter. They answered 

 evasively, saying that they were sorry for what 

 had happened. I told them my suspicions, and 

 they acknowledged that they were true. I took it 

 good-humoredly, as it could not now be helped, and 

 told them we had better go after him. We started 

 accordingly, going north about a mile, and came to 

 a brook that ran down through the rocks, the bed of 



