CHAPTER IV 



STILL-HUNTING ELK ON 

 THE MOUNTAIN 



AFTER the buffalo the elk are the first 

 animals to disappear from a com 

 when it is settled. This arises from their 

 size and consequent conspicuousness, and 

 the eagerness with which they are followed 

 by hunters; and also because of their gre- 

 gariousness and their occasional fits of 

 stupid panic during whose continuance 

 hunters can now and then work great 

 slaughter in a herd years ago elk were 



abundant in the valley of the Little ' 

 souri, and in fall were found wandering in 

 great bands of over a hundred individuals 

 each. But they have now vanished com- 

 pletely, except that one or two may still 

 lurk in some of the most remote and broken 



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