6o THE DEER FAMILY 



minute I saw him standing with drooping head and 

 two more shots finished him. He also bore fine ant- 

 lers. It was a great piece of luck to get three such 

 fine bulls at the cost of half a day's light work ; but we 

 had fairly earned them, having worked hard for ten 

 days, through rain, cold, hunger and fatigue, to no 

 purpose. That evening my home-coming to camp, 

 with three elk tongues and a brace of ruffed grouse 

 hung at my belt, was most happy." 



Since the account of the hunt was written, Two- 

 Ocean Pass has been included in the National Forest 

 Reserve. As the reader may well imagine, it is a 

 good place for elk. 



Elk shooting formerly was much like mule-deer 

 shooting. It was little or no trouble to shoot an ani- 

 mal the size of a horse, and before the elk came to 

 know what the sound of a gun meant, it was not diffi- 

 cult to get within range of them. They have been 

 coursed with stag-hounds and greyhounds, when they 

 were a plains animal, and this must have been fine 

 sport indeed. I have followed these dogs on the great 

 limitless plains, in pursuit of antelope and wolves, 

 but have never used them on elk. 



There is but one method of elk-shooting to-day — 

 still-hunting, and the man who gets his elk has some- 

 thing to be proud of. Like the black-tail deer the elk 

 are less numerous and far more wary than they were a 

 few years ago, and the shooter must make a long jour- 

 ney with a pack-train into the woods, and then make a 

 very careful stalk to procure the antlers of an elk. 

 There are now some excellent guides in the West, and 

 these will usually place the sportsman in sight of his 



