266 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



each big bull to have his own harem, around the out- 

 skirts of which there were to be found lurking occasional 

 spike bulls or two-year-olds who were always venturing 

 too near and being chased off by the master bull. Fre- 

 quently several such herds joined together into a great 

 band. Before the season was fairly on, when the bulls 

 had not been worked into actual frenzy, there was not 

 much fighting in these bands. Later they were the scenes 

 of desperate combats. Each master bull strove to keep 

 his harem under his own eyes, and was always threaten- 

 ing and fighting the other master bulls, as well as those 

 bulls whose prowess had proved insufficient hitherto to 

 gain them a band, or who, after having gained one, had 

 been so exhausted and weakened as to succumb to some 

 new aspirant for the leadership. The bulls were calling 

 and challenging all the time, and there was ceaseless tur- 

 moil, owing to their fights and their driving the cows 

 around. The cows were more wary than the bulls, and 

 there were so many keen noses and fairly good eyes that 

 it was difficult to approach a herd; whereas the single 

 bulls were so noisy, careless, and excited that it was com- 

 paratively easy to stalk them. A rutting wapiti bull is as 

 wicked-looking a creature as can be imagined, swagger- 

 ing among the cows and threatening the young bulls, his 

 jaws mouthing and working in a kind of ugly leer. 



The bulls fight desperately with one another. The 

 two combatants come together with a resounding clash 

 of antlers, and then push and strain with their mouths 

 open. The skin on their necks and shoulders is so thick 

 and tough that the great prongs cannot get through or 



