The Elk of the Pacific Coast 189 



passes all the antlered tribes of earth, should fall 

 such an easy victim to the tenderfoot just at the 

 time when it would seem the most easy to escape. 

 But the elk often fails just where the deer begins 

 to show his wisdom. With the deer the hunter's 

 real troubles generally begin when he is within a 

 few hundred feet of his game, but with the elk 

 they generally end at such a point. Too often, 

 when one simple twist around a big log would 

 take him out of sight, and when a dozen little 

 rough gulches, such as shelter him so well when 

 lying down, are there ready to engulf his fleeting 

 form, he will stand like a goose and await the 

 hunter's lead. And then, instead of running away 

 like the stricken deer, the elk often stands to see 

 if there is any more coming. More easy to hit 

 and more easy to kill, ignorant of the many ways 

 in which the deer throws his pursuer off his 

 bleeding trail, the elk is quite apt to be too easy 

 a victim for almost any one with a good rifle 

 who can once get within fair shooting distance. 

 But just there is the rub. While the elk has 

 learned little about handling himself in the im- 

 mediate presence of man, he knows better than 

 all other game how to beat him with distance. 

 And in this he improves each year, although he 

 may not see a man or hear the sound of a rifle 

 in all that time. It seems a wonderful intuition, 

 with which he is gifted even more than the bear. 



