STEEP TRAILS 



Oregon forest I have never met a single speci- 

 men, though a few have been seen at long 

 intervals. 



When the country was first settled by the 

 whites, fifty years ago, the elk roamed through 

 the woods and over the plains to the east of 

 the Cascades in immense numbers; now 

 they are rarely seen except by experienced 

 hunters who know their haunts in the deepest 

 and most inaccessible solitudes to which they 

 have been driven. So majestic an animal 

 forms a tempting mark for the sportsman's 

 rifle. Countless thousands have been killed 

 for mere amusement and they already seem 

 to be nearing extinction as rapidly as the 

 buffalo. The antelope also is vanishing from 

 the Columbia plains before the farmers and 

 cattle-men. Whether the moose still lingers 

 in Oregon or Washington I am unable to say. 



On the highest mountains of the Cascade 

 Range the wild goat roams in comparative 

 security, few of his enemies caring to go so far 

 in pursuit and to hunt on ground so high and 

 so" dangerous. He is a brave, sturdy, shaggy 

 mountaineer of an animal, enjoying the free- 

 dom and security of crumbling ridges and 

 overhanging cliffs above the glaciers, often- 

 times beyond the reach of the most daring 

 hunter. They seem to be as much at home on 



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