THE WAPITI, OR ROUND -HORNED ELK 151 



totally unaccustomed to it the sense of utter "loneliness is absolutely 

 appalling: the feeling of being lost in the wilderness seems to drive him 

 into a state of panic terror that is frightful to behold, and that in the end 

 renders him bereft of reason. When he realizes that he is lost he often will 

 begin to travel very fast, and finally run until he falls exhausted — only to 

 rise again and repeat the process when he has recovered his strength. If 

 not found in three or four days, he is very apt to become crazy; he will then 

 flee from the rescuers, and must be pursued and captured as if he were a 

 wild animal. 



Since 1884, when I went to the Big Horn Mountains, I have killed no 

 grizzlies. There are some still left in our neighborhood, but they are very 

 shy, and live in such inaccessible places, that, though I have twice devoted 

 several days solely to hunting them, I was unsuccessful each time. A 

 year ago, however, two cowboys found a bear in the open, and after the 

 expenditure of a great number of cartridges killed it with their revolvers, 

 the bear charging gamely to the last. 



But this feat sinks into insignificance when compared with the deed of 

 General W. H. Jackson, of Bellemeade, Tennessee, who is probably the 

 only man living who ever, single-handed, killed a grizzly bear with a 

 cavalry saber. It was many years ago, when he was a young officer in 

 the United States service. He was with a column of eight companies 

 of mounted infantry under the command of Colonel Andrew Porter, when 

 by accident a bear was roused and lumbered off in front of them. Put- 

 ting spurs to his thoroughbred, he followed the bear, and killed it with 

 the saber, in sis^ht of the whole command. 



