378 WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS CHAP. 



gunners may start from England, the game would last for five or 

 six years." These enthusiastic persons forget that although the 

 game will not be actually shot, it will be driven away, which is 

 almost as bad. 



A week's shooting in a mountainous country, where the echoes 

 of the rifle will be resounded far and wide among the hills, will 

 disturb an incredible extent. Such long-enduring animals as deer 

 will travel 30 or 40 miles in 24 hours, and they will quickly dis- 

 appear. The presence of deer is seldom continuous in the same 

 locality throughout all seasons. They are influenced by the 

 pasturage, and the changes of climate : they accordingly are well 

 acquainted with a large area of country, perhaps extending for 

 several hundred miles, through which they have been accustomed 

 to range from the days of their birth. 



The wapiti is a wide ranger, and I have no doubt that those 

 which are met with on the Big Horn range in the State of 

 Wyoming travel at certain seasons to the main range of the Rocky 

 Mountains. All animals that are gregarious are migratory, especi- 

 ally if they are in large numbers. I have myself seen at least 300 

 wapiti in one herd, and I am quite certain that they went straight 

 away from the Big Horn range, as I never saw them again, 

 although I was riding great distances every day for several weeks 

 throughout the country. 



I have already described the character of the Big Horn mountains 

 in the chapter devoted to the bear ; it is only necessary to repeat 

 that it resembles the Highlands of Scotland to a certain degree, 

 upon an enormous scale, the mountains rising to an altitude of 

 12,000 feet above the sea-level, and the forests of spruce firs 

 extending for many miles along the slopes. The superiority over 

 Scotland consists in the firm character of the soil ; there are no 

 swamps or peat mosses, but fine grass, which forms a most fattening 

 pasturage, and in many places the wild sage takes the place of 

 Scottish heather. It may be readily imagined that such a com- 

 bination forms the perfection of a shooting ground. There are, 

 however, considerable drawbacks. Although the climate is ex- 

 tremely healthy, the atmosphere is most disagreeable, through the 

 sudden varieties of temperature and the extreme dryness. 



Our camp was generally about 10,000 feet above the sea. At 

 that altitude the air is considerably rarefied, and the cold during 

 night was extreme, in the month of September. In the day the 

 sun was hot, and the wind was at the same time piercing : this 

 was very trying to the skin, and although I was tolerably weather- 

 proof, my face and neck were peeled from the harsh exposure. 



