AN ELK-HUNT AT TWO-OCEAN PASS. 223 



have been much more successful ; the differ- 

 ence being due to sheer luck, as I hunted 

 equally hard in all three instances. Thus on 

 this trip I killed and saw nothing but elk ; 

 yet the other members of the party either saw, 

 or saw fresh signs of, not only blacktail deer, 

 but sheep, bear, bison, moose, cougar, and 

 wolf. Now in 1889 I hunted over almost 

 precisely similar country, only farther to the 

 northwest, on the boundary between Idaho 

 and Montana, and, with the exception of sheep, 

 I stumbled on all the animals mentioned, and 

 white goat in addition, so that my bag of 

 twelve head actually included eight species 

 much the best bag I ever made, and the only 

 one that could really be called out of the 

 common. In 1884, on a trip to the Bighorn 

 Mountains, I killed three bear, six elk and six 

 deer. In laying in the winter stock of meat 

 for my ranch I often far excelled these figures 

 as far as mere numbers went ; but on no 

 other regular hunting trip, where the quality 

 and not the quantity of the game was the 

 prime consideration, have I ever equalled 

 them ; and on several where I worked hardest 

 I hardly averaged a head a week. The occa- 

 sional days or weeks of phenomenal luck, are 

 more than earned by the many others where 

 no luck whatever follows the very hardest 

 work. Yet, if a man hunts with steady resolu- 

 tion he is apt to strike enough lucky days 

 amply to repay him. 



On this Shoshone trip I fired fifty-eight shots. 

 In preference to using the knife I generally 

 break the neck of an elk which is still strug- 

 gling ; and I fire at one as long as it can stand, 



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