426 WALL STREET AND THE WILDS 



Elk and deer were plentiful and antelope always 

 in sight. On our first day's hunt in the valley 

 Ward and the Indian took the mountain on the 

 east bank of the river and the half-breed and I 

 the one on the west side. We scaled precipices, 

 floundered through morasses, got tangled up in 

 windfalls, and saw fifty antelope, a dozen mule 

 deer, and finally a band of elk in a ravine. 

 Tethering our broncos, we crept up to the ravine, 

 when out of it rose directly before me a great bull 

 elk so near that it was wicked to shoot it with the 

 rifle which I had ready instead of the camera 

 which was slung to my shoulder. Thereafter, 

 excepting when looking for bear, it was the 

 camera which I kept ready. 



Ward came to camp empty-handed, but he had 

 had more fun than I, for he had jumped a bear, 

 and although he didn't get him he had had a 

 lovely break-neck race after him. That night 

 the half-breed made a spade of wood with which 

 he dug a pit and built the camp fire over it. He 

 kept up a big fire through the night and then 

 shoveled a great mass of coals out of the baked 



