CHAPTER XXII. 



ELK HUNTING IN THE EOCKY 

 MOUNTAINS. 



all the large game on the American 

 continent, the elk (Cervus canadensis) 

 is the noblest, the grandest, the stateliest. 

 'I would detract nothing from the noble 

 game qualities of the moose, caribou, deer, 

 or mountain sheep. Each has its peculiar 

 points of excellence which endear it to the heart of 

 the sportsman, but the elk possesses more than any 

 of the others. In size he lowers far above all, 

 except the moose. In sagacity, caution, cunning, 

 and wariness he is the peer, if not the superior, of 

 them all. He is always on the alert, his keen scent, 

 his piercing eye, his acute sense of hearing, combin- 

 ing to render him a vigilant sentinel of his own 

 safety. 



His great size and powerful muscular construction 

 give him almost unbounded endurance. When 

 alarmed or pursued he will travel for twenty or 

 thirty hours, at a rapid swinging trot, without stop- 

 ping for food or rest. He is a proud, fearless ranger, 

 and even when simply migrating from one range of 

 mountains to another, will travel from seventy-five 

 to a hundred miles without lying down. He is a 

 marvelous mountaineer, and, considering his 



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