ON THE PRAIRIE 185 



gust I found that I had jumped and killed, 

 in my haste, a black-tail deer, which must 

 have been already roused by the passage of 

 the wounded elk. I at once took up the 

 trail of the latter again, but after a little 

 while the blood grew less, and ceased, and I 

 lost the track; nor could I find it, hunt as 

 hard as I might. The poor beast could not 

 have gone five hundred yards ; yet we never 

 found the carcass. 



Then I walked slowly back past the deer 

 I had slain by so curious a mischance, to the 

 elk. The first one shot down was already 

 dead. The second was only wounded, 

 though it could not rise. When it saw us 

 coming it sought to hide from us by laying 

 its neck flat on the ground, but when we 

 came up close it raised its head and looked 

 proudly at us, the heavy mane bristling up 

 on the neck, while its eyes glared and its 

 teeth grated together. I felt really sorry to 

 kill it. Though these were both well-known 

 elks, their antlers, of ten points, were small, 

 twisted, and ill-shaped; in fact hardly worth 



