IN THE FAR WEST. 231 



Making for the land with all possible haste, they soon battered 

 the vehicle into small pieces, while the unfortunate owner had 

 some difficulty in reaching- shore. By offering a large reward 

 he recovered his runaways the next day ; and, being a man of 

 determination as well as resources, he concluded to get rid of 

 their penchant for bolting at once. With this purpose in view 

 he put them into a field having very high fences, and kept 

 hounds yelling about it all day long. The elks were at first 

 thoroughly scared, but after running themselves nearly to 

 death, and finding no means of escape nor any result from 

 their great alarm, they gradually became indifferent, and 

 settled down to feeding. This experiment being repeated a 

 few times, their idle fears were allayed, and the owner suffered 

 no more mishaps from their impetuosity. How far they could 

 be made useful for carrying light couriers I cannot surmise, 

 but the probability is that they would be found unequalled for 

 such purposes in the wooded regions of the Far West. 



It does certainly seem a pity that this animal cannot be 

 domesticated, and made into something more useful and 

 permanent than a means of affording the pleasure of shooting 

 to a few sportsmen or hungry hunters, or enriching " skin- 

 scalpers/'' whose sole idea of sport is to slaughter even the 

 pregnant hinds for the sake of the paltry sum they obtain for 

 the hides. It is estimated that over ten thousand elks were 

 slaughtered last year for their skins alone, and of these, 

 about four thousand were killed in Montana, principally in 

 the Yellowstone region, where the animal is, or rather was, 

 exceedingly numerous. 



A skin realizes from two dollars and a half to four dollars, 

 according to the character of the coating ; and for this pittance 

 many men devote themselves to destroying indiscriminately 

 the most stately animal in the country; yet, nothing is done to 

 them, owing to the indifference of the legislators to framing a 

 law that would punish such Vandals. At the present rate of 

 destruction the wapiti will not be known in Montana, Colorado 

 and Wyoming in a short time, and persons must hie to the dense 

 forests of portions of Idaho, Oregon, Washington Territory, and 

 other distant regions, to enjoy a legitimate hunt after it. 



