THE WAPITI OR ELK 53 



shrubs and trees. They were formerly more often 

 found in such country than in deep, dark and almost 

 impenetrable woods without the openings and pictur- 

 esque lakes. They are fond of walking out on some 

 high point where there is an extended view over 

 mountain ranges and intervening valleys watered by 

 streams and lakes. I can imagine no picture more 

 charming than such a scene with this great antlcrcd 

 stag in the foreground. 



INIy first expedition after elk was made years ago in 

 the Uintah Mountains in northeastern Utah and south- 

 ern Wyoming, where few white men had ever been. 

 Our main camp was pitched on a small branch of the 

 Green River. Here we had wagons and an escort of 

 soldiers from Fort Bridge, and lived comfortably in 

 wall tents while engaged in collecting fossils from the 

 adjacent bad-lands for the Yale Museum. With a 

 competent guide we made an early start, taking a 

 small amount of provisions, some bedding, and a few 

 cooking utensils on pack animals; and crossing the 

 broad graj'^-green plain overgrown with the tufted 

 shrubs of wild sage we followed a small stream to the 

 point where it issued from the mountains between 

 huge walls of rock and here made our first camp. 

 Along the stream the beavers had made many dams, 

 and the stream was called Beaver Creek after these 

 industrious animals. Having made our camp, which 

 consisted of spreading our blankets on the grass (we 

 had no tents), we took enough large trout from the 

 stream for supper and breakfast and the following 

 morning pushed on into the mountains, following a 

 well-worn game trail alongside the little stream. We 



