THE WAPITI 277 



little persecuted; and they were easier to kill than mule- 

 deer simply because they were more readily tracked and 

 more readily seen, and offered a larger, and on the whole 

 a steadier, mark at which to shoot. When a small band 

 had visited a pool their tracks could be identified at once, 

 because in the soft ground the flexible feet spread and 

 yielded so as to leave the marks of the false hoofs. On 

 ordinary ground it was difficult to tell their footprints 

 from those of the yearling and two-year-old ranch cattle. 

 But the mountains are the true ground for the wapiti. 

 Here he must be hunted on foot, and nowadays, since he 

 has grown wiser, skill and patience, and the capacity to 

 endure fatigue and exposure, must be shown by the suc- 

 cessful hunter. My own wapiti-hunting has been done 

 in September and early October during the height of 

 the rut, and therefore at a time when the conditions were 

 most favorable for the hunter. I have hunted them in 

 many places throughout the Rockies, from the Big Horn 

 in western Wyoming to the Big Hole Basin in western 

 Montana, close to the Idaho line. Where I hunted, the 

 wapiti were always very noisy both by day and by night, 

 and at least half of the bulls that I killed attracted my 

 attention by their calling before I saw either them or their 

 tracks. At night they frequently passed close to camp, 

 or came nearly up to the picketed horses, challenging all 

 the time. More than once I slipped out, hoping to kill 

 one by moonlight, but I never succeeded. Occasionally, 

 when they were plentiful, and were restless and always 

 roving about, I simply sat still on a log, until one gave 

 me a chance. Sometimes I came across them while hunt- 



