280 MY SPORTING HOLIDAYS 



panion I have never met. He was a well-read and 

 pleasant-mannered man who thoroughly understood 

 his business, was determined to show sport, and, 

 moreover, possessed that calm and philosophic tem- 

 perament that is probably as well and as frequently 

 produced by the ups and downs of a youth spent 

 in the Far West as by any other training in life. 

 Some of the hunting incidents of the trip I have 

 already touched upon in other chapters. It is suffi- 

 cient to say here that I succeeded in obtaining nine 

 good wapiti bulls, with one or two antelope and deer, 

 and, generally speaking, enjoyed excellent sport amid 

 beautiful scenery and in one of the most perfect 

 climates in the world. 



It may be of interest here to quote Wells' opinion 

 as to the existing stock of big-game, particularly 

 wapiti, in this part of the Eockies. His emphatic 

 view was that the National Park had been the chief 

 means of the preservation of wapiti as well as deer, 

 antelope, and bear in this region ; and that a stock 

 of something like 50,000 wapiti still existed, and 

 were likely to be maintained, in and around the 

 National Park. 



The main drawback at that time was the want of 

 a sufficient winter range, under proper protection, 

 for wapiti and deer. This want has since been 

 supplied by a large increase in the protected area, 

 adjacent to the park, in which hunting, although not 

 absolutely forbidden, as is the case in the park, is now 

 under strict supervision and regulation. 



The big-horn sheep (Ovis montana), in a sense, 

 protect themselves. They have been driven by much 

 hunting on to the highest rocky mountain ranges 

 of the Divide, where they, unlike wapiti and deer, 



