230 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



trot a mile several seconds under four minutes, and if pushed 

 might do it in three minutes. On open or rocky ground they 

 can put a good horse to his mettle to overtake them, if they 

 have a fair start, nor must he lag on closing with them if he 

 would keep them company. They seem to be able to move at 

 the same pace over all kinds of ground, and it appears to be a 

 matter of indifference to them whether it is one mass of stones, 

 ruts, and hillocks, or a level prairie. This is where they have the 

 advantage over horses, and why it is so difficult to run them 

 down in a rough country. I have done it, however, but in 

 nearly all cases I broke their trot first, and this fatigued them 

 so promptly that I was able to pull alongside and give them 

 the contents of a revolver or rifle. They can go twenty or 

 thirty miles easily without showing signs of weariness or 

 flagging, and, if forced to it, I am inclined to think they 

 could go a hundred miles over a good country. 



The size, strength, and speed of the elk ought to fit it for 

 some useful domestic purpose. It could be trained to be a 

 valuable beast of burden ; and its speed is so great, and it has 

 so much power of endurance, that it could be used either for 

 drawing a carriage or to carry couriers who have to ride long 

 distances at a rapid rate. By treating it as geldings are, the 

 pugnacity and ill-temper it displays during the rutting season 

 could be readily overcome, and it would be rendered as docile 

 as a donkey. A friend of mine once owned a pair treated in 

 this manner, and he found that very little training was required 

 to fit them for drawing a carriage. When it came to road 

 driving, he saw that no steeds he met could even keep in sight 

 of his antlcred Pegasuses for any length of time. Their long, 

 trotting gait, which never seems to falter either in measure or 

 speed, makes them the perfection of carriage roadsters; but 

 they have this one great, drawback, that if they hear the cry 

 of hounds they will bolt immediately, and probably leave 

 carnage and driver behind them. The pair which I refer 

 to were startled suddenly one day while enjoying their 

 exercise by the baying of a pack of mongrels, and no sooner 

 did they hear the cry than they jumped over a high bank- 

 carriage, driver, and all and landed in a deep pool in a river. 



