172 GAME. 



He soon found the herd, fired, but missed, and the elk 

 disappeared. After searching from one side of the timber 

 to the other he joined one of his companions, who told 

 him that the elk had not passed out by him. The two 

 then went to the other, who made the same report. 

 Their positions covered all the ground, and, it being cer- 

 tain that the elk were in the timber, all three went in. 

 After a long search, the herd was found standing on a 

 ledge, from one to three yards wide and scarcely thirty 

 long. To get on this ledge, they had made a clear jump 

 down a precipice of not less than fourteen feet. Their 

 position was apparently without remedy. On one side a 

 perpendicular wall of fourteen feet, on the other a sheer 

 descent of 2,000 feet into the depth of the chasm. 



In the excitement of finding the game, one of the 

 officers fired. An elk fell, struggled an instant, toppled 

 over the brink, and, after what appeared an age of anxious 

 waiting, a faint thud announced the arrival of the carcass 

 at the bottom of the gorge. Another was shot with the 

 same result, and the firing stopped. The officers remained 

 on the ground for an hour, so near that they could almost 

 touch the elk, and yet unable to bag one. They looked 

 in vain for some means of releasing the elk from their 

 voluntary prison, and, finding none, returned to their camp, 

 leaving the poor beasts to their fate. 



In a very few years this most splendid animal will 

 have shared the fate of the buffalo. 



The presence of the Indians was, a few years ago, a 

 protection to the game of the plains. Their general re- 

 moval to reservations has made it safe for worthless whites, 

 too lazy to work, to penetrate almost every portion of the 

 country. These men butcher the game for their hides in 

 season and out of season. 



