228 SPOA TING A D VENTURES 



his foreleg's, lie gave a snort and a defiant look around, as if 

 seeking 1 for new foes, and finding none, he gazed once more on 

 the slain, than trotted off into the dam]), dense forest. I was 

 close enough to have shot him easily, but I refrained from 

 injuring sueh a noble, spirited creature, for the sake of the 

 pluck he had displayed. 



That he will boldly face man when brought to bay I have 

 received the most authentic accounts. Two men in Oregon, 

 who were employed to carry the mail to a small settlement 

 with which there was no communication except by an Indian 

 trail that led over a high and thickly wooded mountain, or by 

 following the sea-shore when the tide was out, were arrested 

 on one of their trips by the presence of two elks, a male and a 

 female, that boldly barred the path in front of them, and 

 manifested no inclination to leave it. This path was bounded 

 on the upper side by huge crags which no four-footed animal 

 could leap or clamber over, and the lower by high, wooded 

 cliffs that rose perpendicularly upward from the boiling sea, 

 so that neither party could very well advance or retreat, or 

 move to the right or left without suffering a serious incon- 

 venience, or endangering their lives. The men being unarmed, 

 dared not advance, and the elks being- placed between the 

 two horns of the dilemma of which would be best, either to 

 face their most dreaded enemy or meet death by hurling 

 themselves off the cliff, hesitated about what to do. The men, 

 seeing that they were undecided in their purpose, yelled 

 loudly at them, and this startled them so much that they 

 wheeled about suddenly, broke over a rise of the mountain, 

 and disappeared from view. One of the men, remembering 1 

 that the tide was full and that the animals could not cross a 

 small bay that divided two cliffs in the sea then raging, 

 predicted they would return and charge them rather than face 

 the surf, and the words were scarcely uttered before they reap- 

 peared over the rise, the male in advance. Lowering his 

 horns almost to the ground, he charged upon them at his best 

 pace, but they evaded him by swinging themselves out of his 

 course by means of two young firs, and when the hind passed 

 they resumed their march, thoroughly thankful for their escape 



