A LARGE BAND OF ELK. 309 



grey gave a tremendous buck, and being overbalanced by the 

 rifle I came off, on which he turned deliberately round and 

 lashed out twice at me, missing my head by a few inches only, 

 and ending by going off to camp as fast as he could. The 

 Colonel followed and brought him back, when I proceeded to 

 give him a lesson with a young sapling, in the course of which 

 there was some grand bucking done. I began to see now why 

 the Indians had been willing to part with so good-looking a 

 horse, and why they had been disappointed when he went off 

 quietly. 



Soon after this we separated, and I tied up my horse and 

 began to climb the hill. I had brought a glass with me, as I 

 wanted to see if I could find any sheep. It was a very rough 

 climb as there was so much fallen timber in all these ranges, 

 but about three hours' walking took me to the top, where the 

 view was splendid. The Basin lay at my feet, looking much 

 smaller than it really was, and I could see all the other six 

 ranges quite plainly; but although I remained there about 

 two hours and looked about carefully I saw no game, so I 

 began to descend, coming down a different way, and was about 

 halfway down, when on mounting a small rocky ridge I 

 found myself among a large band of elk, which seemed to 

 jump up all round me. I fired at one with a good head, 

 and was then sorry I had been so hasty, as a grand bull 

 galloped up out of a small hollow where he had been lying 

 and passed me within thirty yards. It was horribly tempting, 

 but I had already more meat than we could eat, so I let him 

 go. The one I had killed had a very pretty head, the horns 

 being perfect, but only about 47 inches long. I took as much 

 meat as I could carry, fetching my horse from where I had 



