410 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



foot sinks deep into the light soil, for the earth is full of little 

 tunnels, and every tunnel is choked with garnered pine-cones ; 

 whilst in the high places amongst the rocks you come now and 

 again upon a miniature haystack, neatly cut, and made of dried 

 Alpine flowers and grasses, prepared for winter use by one of 

 Nature's invisible workers. 



As you lie upon the hill-side in the warm sun at noon, with 

 the timber all below you and a good day's work behind you, 

 ) ou will have time to note these things ; but just now, though 

 the stars are still visible, you should not be 'foolin' around 

 camp ' any longer, if you want to get a shot at a bull before 

 sundown. 



It is no good pleading that you have toiled for a fortnight 

 and seen nothing ; that your limbs ache, your clothes are torn 

 to rags, and your hands and feet wounded by the beastly dead 

 timber. Such heads as bull elk wear in Colorado can only be 

 earned nowadays by early rising, long patience, and honest 

 hard work ; so off with you, while the rime is on the sage 

 brush, in spite of the temptation to stop until Sam has cooked 

 just one rasher of sow-belly. The first crossing of the brook, 

 before you are a hundred yards from camp, will effectually 

 wake you up and make you step out, unless you want to ' freeze 

 solid,' for the stepping-stones at this early hour are coated with 

 ice, and neither courage nor caution, neither moccasins, nails, 

 nor even sand, can save you from a cold plunge. Great 

 Caesar's ghost ! how cold it is ; and how warm even the wood- 

 land bogs strike after that running water ! 



Here, within half a mile of your camp, is the first sign of 

 elk ; a great wallow made in the marsh late yesterday evening, 

 and running from the wallow is a trail, well beaten, which 

 leads, as you know, by a very circuitous route to that bare 

 patch of red mud where the elk lick for alkali. But we have 

 no time to follow the trail to-day, more especially as the elk 

 seem to leave the lick before dawn. Our hunting-ground is in 

 a belt of burnt timber very near the top of the divide, and to 

 reach it in time we must climb straight up one ridge after 



