A LARGE BAND OF ELK. 131 



I am afraid we spoke our minds very freely as to what we 

 thought of them, and we cannot be said to have parted friends. 

 A few shots would have been quite enough to have saved the 

 poor fellow, and there was not the slightest fear of the block- 

 house being attacked. 



On arriving in camp we found all well, and no Indian had 

 been seen, though the men had done a great deal of hunting. 



A few days after our return, F came across a band of 



about five hundred elk. He was riding along and had seen 110 

 sign of game, when there was a noise as if several companies of 

 cavalry were dashing out of a ravine to his right, and this 

 enormous band of elk appeared on the opposite side, and the 

 bulls tossing their great heads in the air, stood for a moment 



to see what had disturbed them. F had time for one long 



shot, and dropped a fine bull, which was in such good order 

 that he had more than three inches of fat on the brisket, and 

 kept us in lard for some weeks. 



One of the horses I had bought at St. Joe was so much 

 given to running away, that he could not be safely ridden at 

 any pace but a walk when in a town ; but this he had given up 

 on finding that every time he tried to bolt he was whipped 

 instead of being stopped, so that it did not pay, there being 

 practically no end to the galloping ground. He was a very 

 handsome animal and had wonderful bottom, but never having 

 been fired off he was very hard to manage when running 

 buffalo. He would spring on one side when I fired and would 

 bolt, and the buffalo would be out of sight by the time I had 

 stopped him and turned him in the right direction. I had, 

 however, got him much quieter, and one day had killed a cow 

 and tied most of the meat on his back. It was the first time I 



