1 82 THE WILDERNESS HUNTER. 



a little spring of clear water and raked out 

 the coals. Then we cut two willow twigs as 

 spits, ran on each a number of small pieces 

 of elk loin, and roasted them over the fire. 

 We had salt ; we were very hungry ; and I 

 never ate anything that tasted better. 



The wapiti is, next to the moose, the most 

 quarrelsome and pugnacious of American 

 deer. It cannot be said that it is ordinarily a 

 dangerous beast to hunt ; yet there are in- 

 stances in which wounded wapiti, incauti- 

 ously approached to within striking distance, 

 have severely misused their assailants, both 

 with their antlers and their forefeet. I my- 

 self knew one man who had been badly 

 mauled in this fashion. When tamed the 

 bulls are dangerous to human life in the rutting 

 season. In a grapple they are of course in- 

 finitely more to be dreaded than ordinary 

 deer, because of their great strength. 



However, the fiercest wapiti bull, when in 

 a wild state, flees the neighborhood of man 

 with the same panic terror shown by the cows ; 

 and he makes no stand against a grisly, 

 though when his horns are grown he has little 

 fear of either wolf or cougar if on his guard 

 and attacked fairly. The chief battles of the 

 bulls are of course waged with one another. 

 Before the beginning of the rut they keep by 

 themselves : singly, while the sprouting horns 

 are still very young, at which time they lie in 

 secluded spots and move about as little as 

 possible; in large bands, later in the season. 

 At the beginning of the fall these bands join 

 with one another and with the bands of cows 

 and calves, which have likewise been keeping 



