186 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



them, and to us, therefore, there was no pleasure in 

 so doing. The real agents of destruction have been 

 the hide-hunters of the 'eighties and 'nineties, largely 

 assisted by the Indians, as well as by the settlers and 

 ranchmen, who not so long since killed recklessly of 

 the herds of wapiti and deer as they migrated in the 

 late autumn out of the mountains to their winter 

 range on the open deserts. 



But all this is another story. In those days we 

 took our sport as we found it, while the western 

 settlers and hunters themselves never for a moment 

 seemed to anticipate the day when game might dis- 

 appear from the foot-hills, and when the wild natural 

 life of the continent might suffer serious loss. 



At Fort Steele we renewed our acquaintance with 

 the American officers we had first met some months 

 before. They listened to tales of our sport, and 

 admired our trophies. But they had ideas of their 

 own on the subject. c Talk about elk,' said one of 

 them, ' why, I killed eleven elk before breakfast the 

 other day.' He had struck a band of elk in the 

 rutting season in the open country, and had killed 

 eleven cows and calves, probably wounding many 

 more, by dint of pumping his Winchester rifle into 

 the herd, regardless of age or sex. The curious part 

 of it was that he seemed proud of the feat, upon 

 which we did not venture to comment. 



It also happened that before leaving we made the 

 acquaintance of the now world-renowned Buffalo Bill, 

 then also known as Captain (now Colonel) Cody, who 

 chanced to be in the town. There was a slight 

 rivalry at that time between him and Texas Jack, 

 Boney Earnest's friend. 



It was the eve of our departure for New York. 



