THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 99 



bare of trees. Now was our moment, and we crept up 

 ventre-a-tcrre right amongst them. Every minute we 

 wouhl see a tawny flank among the trees within a tew 

 yards. I ml I do not think we were detected. We could 

 hear much iiiishiiiu' and tiijhtino; o-oinu' on on the hare 

 top, where the big ones were assembled ; Ijut though we 

 now and then eauQ-ht sio-ht of a fine pair of horns over 

 tlir intcrvenini; hedo-e of undero-rowth, we could not see 

 enough to pick and choose. Perhaps we ought to have 

 run in among them and taken our chance of picking out 

 the bicfo-est, or, as I have sometimes thouMit since, so 

 great was the preoccupation of tlie herd, we might have 

 climbed one of the fir-trees wdthout beino- observed, and 

 so commanded the serried mass in front ; but we hoped 

 that in the frequent rushes of the old l)ul]s to drive off the 

 young ones, the ''master" would come our way, and we 

 lay low. At last one, bigger than any we had yet seen, 

 showed himself in hot pursuit of a youngster. It was his 

 last charge. Into the jaws of death his blind jealousy 

 carried him. He was a good bull, but I am ('(>ii\in('ed, 

 though 1 never got a fair sight of his rivals at eiose 

 quarters, that he carried by no means the champion head 

 of sueh a herd. I afterwards got to the top of a hill 

 which commanded the country, and ukkIc out the whole 

 herd abdut three miles off, gat]iere(l in the (jat river 

 bottom. They were too distant to count, but there must 

 have been quite two hundred of them. 



It is very intcrestino: and instructive. thou<di, owiiio- 

 Lu the restlessness of wild animals at such a time, seldom 

 productive of a tangible result, to follow their tracks 

 in the snow. I have a vivid recollection of a day I 



