IN THE FAR WEST. 229 



from an ignominious death. They took excellent care after 

 that to go armed, and this resolution saved their lives several 

 times from the attacks of wild animals. Under ordinary 

 circumstances, however, the elk is as timid as any member of 

 its family, and a cur will keep a herd in motion all day. 



The usual method of killing it in the forests of the North- 

 west is by stalking, and where it is little hunted it may be 

 approached from the leeward to within easy rifle range, and 

 a herd almost destroyed before the survivors become alarmed 

 enough to seek safety in flight. I have killed five out of a 

 herd of twenty in the Coast Mountains before the remainder 

 got out of range, and I could have killed as many more if I 

 wished, by following them up, for they showed no fear of me, 

 and seemed to look upon me more as a strange than a 

 dangerous creature, if I should judge from their stupid stare 

 and their indifference to the reports of the rifle. Thousands 

 of them in Oregon, Washington Territory, Wyoming, Colorado 

 and Montana never saw man, and have no fear of him if he is 

 to their leeward, but let them once sniff him to the windward 

 and they would be off like a shot, nor would they stop until 

 they had placed many a mile between him and themselves. 

 If they are once started in an alarmed condition, hunters say 

 they will not halt until they have crossed a stream or lake ; 

 but while this is tme in many cases, especially in the open or 

 in sparsely wooded valleys, it does not hold good in the dense 

 forest, for I have routed the same herd three times in one 

 day ; and that it was the same 1 inferred from the presence of 

 two wounded animals, and the fact that it was led by a 

 splendid hind. 



When a herd is started, the males throw their cumbrous 

 antlers far back on the neck, so that the nose is high in 

 the air. One might imagine that they could not see the 

 ground very well under these circumstances, but whether they 

 do or do not, they trot through dense shrubbery and over 

 fallen trees with the greatest ease, and never falter or break 

 their gait, no matter what ordinary obstacles thev may have 

 to surmount. Their pace is a long, measured trot, which 

 carries them over the ground at a rapid rate. Thev can, I tanev 



