THE LONG TRAIL 



losing ground — ^he was three chapters far- 

 ther back than he had been two weeks be- 

 fore! 



We more than once had occasion to 

 realize how largely the setting is respon- 

 sible for much that we enjoy in the wilds. 

 Father had told me of how he used to 

 describe the bellowing of the bull elk as he 

 would hear it ring out in the frozen still- 

 ness of the forests of Wyoming. He 

 thought of it, and talked of it, as a weird, 

 romantic call — until one day when he was 

 walking through the zoological gardens 

 accompanied by the very person to whom 

 he had so often given the description. As 

 they passed the wapitis' enclosure, a bull 

 bellowed, and father's illusions and credit 

 were simultaneously shattered, for the ro- 

 mantic call he had so often dwelt upon 

 was, in a zoological park, nothing more 

 than a loud and discordant sort of bray. 

 59 



