164 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



ing posture or on my hands and knees. From my position 

 when ready to shoot only three or four could be seen, and 

 from these I picked out the largest cow elk and fired, the 

 bullet striking fair and making a "thud" that could be 

 plainly heard. The herd started to run, and soon bunched 

 as they will nearly always do, when I got in a second shot 

 and hit another cow elk. By this time they were filing off 

 at a lope, and selecting a big buck I fired at and wounded 

 him, but not so but he could keep up with the herd. The 

 first elk ran into a cedar thicket and lay down. Going up 

 within thirty steps I gave her a shot in the head. The two 

 had fallen not more than two hundred steps apart and be- 

 fore noon I had them both dressed, and some snow thrown 

 into the cavity of the body to cool them off quickly, the day 

 being so warm that blow flies were beginning to come 

 around. 



It was about a mile further to the top of a high ridge 

 where I stopped and ate luncheon, watching in the meantime 

 for game, being screened from sight by some clumps of 

 brush. While eating I saw five deer about half a mile off 

 — a big buck by himself and a buck, doe and two fawns in 

 another place. After luncheon I went for the buck first, 

 and getting within long range gave him a shot, but it was 

 not immediately fatal. He was shot through the body, but 

 bled very little on the outside. I followed him for about a 

 mile, but the tracking was so slow, I gave it up and went 

 back to try and find the other four deer. They had moved 

 about a half mile, but were easily found, and I got them all, 

 it taking one shot for the old doe, one for one of the fawns 

 and two each for the buck and the other fawn. It was dark 

 when I got into camp, but it was the greatest day's hunt I 

 had ever had. I had killed two elk and four deer and had 

 used eleven cartridges. Carl had come across the same herd 

 of elk later in the day, and had brought down one of the 

 bucks. These were the first elk he had ever seen and 



