58 THE DEER FAMILY 



within range, easily killed a fine animal which must 

 have weighed 700 pounds or more. 



When the rutting season is on and the bulls are 

 whistling their loud challenge on the mountains, they 

 are less difficult to approach than at any other season. 

 Roosevelt has given us an account* of shooting elk at 

 this season at the Two-Ocean Pass in the Shoshone 

 Mountains, Wyoming. He describes many fine days' 

 sport and successful bags. His best bag was three elk, 

 all fine bulls, in a half day's shooting. " We went up the 

 steep, forest-clad mountain side, and before we had 

 walked an hour, heard two elk whistling ahead of us. 

 The woods were open and quite free from under- 

 growth, and we were able to advance noiselessly ; there 

 was no wind, for the weather was still, clear and cold. 

 Both of the elk were evidently very much excited, an- 

 swering each other continually ; they had probably 

 been master bulls, but had become so exhausted that 

 their rivals had driven them from the herds, forc- 

 ing them to remain in seclusion until they regained 

 their lost strength. As we crept stealthily forward, 

 the calling grew louder and louder, until we could 

 hear the grunting sounds with which the challenge of 

 the nearest ended. He was in a large wallow, which 

 was also a lick. When we were still sixty yards off, 

 he heard us, and rushed out, but wheeled and stood a 

 moment to gaze, puzzled by my buck-skin suit. I fired 

 into his throat, breaking his neck, and down he went 

 in a heap. Rushing in and turning, I called to Woody : 

 ' He's a twelve pointer, but the horns are small.' As 

 I spoke, I heard the roar of the challenge of the other 



* The Century Magazine, September, 1892. 



