AND OTHER HUNTING ADVENTURES. 187 



planned and carried out their investigation all the 

 way through. 



The only mistake they made, and one at which 

 I was surprised, considering their usual cunning 

 and sagacity, was that some of them at least did not 

 circle the horses and get to the leeward. But they 

 were in such a wild country, so far back in the 

 remote fastnesses of the Rockies, that they had 

 probably never encountered hunters or horses 

 before and had not acquired all the cunning of their 

 more hunted and haunted brothers. After their 

 temporary scare they returned, step by step, to their 

 investigation, and the largest bull in the bunch 

 approached the very log behind, which I sat. He 

 was just in the act of stepping over it when he 

 caught a whiff of my breath and, with a terrific 

 snort, vaulted backward and side wise certainly 

 thirty feet. At the same instant I rose up and 

 shouted, and the whole band went tearing down 

 the mountain side making a racket like that of an 

 avalanche. 



As before stated, I could have had my choice out 

 of the herd, but my only pack- horse was loaded so 

 that I could have carried but a small piece of meat, 

 and was unwilling to waste so grand a creature for 

 the little I could save from him. 



The antlers of the bull elk grow to a great size. 

 He sheds them in February of each year. The new 

 horn begins to grow in April. During the summer it 

 is soft and pulpy and is covered with a fine velvety 

 growth of hair; it matures and hardens in August ; 

 early in September he rubs this velvet off and is then 

 ready to try conclusions with any rival that comes in 



