MY FIRST TRIP TO THE ROCKIES 171 



But to return to the Ferris Range. The ' whistling ' 

 season for elk had now begun, and we had, as Jack 

 Roberts remarked, all the fun we wanted with the old 

 bulls. In those days they came down into more open 

 ground when running with the herds of cows, and, 

 occupied as they were in bellowing defiance at and in 

 fighting with one another, in the intervals of guarding 

 their respective harems, gave themselves freely away 

 to the hunter. We only molested the mature old 

 bulls, and of these secured several more good heads 

 apiece. One day Tom Bate got three fine bulls, one 

 a fourteen -pointer. Towards the end of September 

 we returned to Fort Steele to replenish our stores 

 and to make a further expedition south of the rail- 

 road. 



So far we had seen no bear nor big-horn sheep 

 ( Ovis montana), nor any black-tail buck really worth 

 the killing. Bear- sign we had seen once or twice, and 

 one night we had sat up at a kill, but to no purpose. 

 The range grizzly of the west had so far eluded us. 

 Frank Earnest had also undertaken to show us a 

 Red Indian camp, in order to complete our western 

 education. 



Accordingly, a week later found us camped at the 

 head of Jack Creek, fifty miles north of the railroad, 

 on the Main Divide of the Rockies. Here we accom- 

 plished one part of our design by killing a fine old 

 range grizzly in a somewhat inglorious manner. The 

 forest cover was thicker and more extensive on this 

 part of the Main Divide than in the country further 

 north that we had come from. It was known to be 

 a favourite range for bear, but they were difficult to 

 find in the rocky timbered fastnesses of their moun- 

 tain home. In order, therefore, to provide for all 



