AFTER BIG-GAME IN WYOMING 201 



a good sample of the kind of trophy we had come 

 some 5,000 miles from home to obtain. 



We spent a cheery evening in camp that night, 

 telling yarns round a blazing fire and looking forward 

 to the next few weeks' sport with a keenness that had 

 only been whetted by the day's success. 



For the next week we hunted from the same camp 

 with varying success, each going daily in different 

 directions with our respective guides, devoting our 

 attention solely to bear and old ram sheep, and 

 returning at night to swap yarns and compare notes 

 round the camp-fire. The country was full of game, 

 and had we desired merely to make a record bag, a 

 holocaust of slaughter might have been perpetrated. 

 Deer, buffalo, elk, and antelope were constantly in 

 view, of which occasional specimens were only killed 

 when a change of venison was desired ; otherwise 

 these animals were left severely alone. 



Bears, however, we continued to shoot whenever 

 we got the chance. On one occasion only do I re- 

 member not going after a bear. It happened thus : 

 Bob Snell and I were out for the day, and fortune 

 favoured us from the start. Within a mile or so from 

 camp we spied a large she-bear with two well-grown 

 cubs in an open park. A cautious approach on foot 

 up a steep gully brought us within easy range, and 

 in a few moments I had killed all three in a similar 

 number of shots with my '500 express. 



The important thing in bear- shooting is to make 

 sure of the first shot. It should be placed without 

 fail in a vital spot. The bear is thus mortally 

 wounded before knowing the whereabouts of the 

 hunter. If, on the other hand, the bear is not hit 

 in the right place or the cub is first killed, the hunter 



