WILDERNESS RESERVES 



33 



in a little open valley by himself, many miles from any 

 other elk. The cougar which killed it, judging from its 

 tracks, was a big male. As the elk were evidently rather 

 too numerous for the feed, I do not think the cougars 

 were doing any damage. 



Coyotes are plentiful, but the elk evidently have no 

 dread of them. One day I crawled up to within fifty 

 yards of a band of elk lying down. A coyote was walking 

 about among them, and beyond an occasional look they 

 paid no heed to him. He did not venture to go within 

 fifteen or twenty paces of any one of them. In fact, ex- 

 cept the cougar, I saw but one living thing attempt to 

 molest the elk. This was a golden eagle. We saw sev- 

 eral of these great birds. On one occasion we had ridden 

 out to the foot of a sloping mountain side, dotted over 

 with bands and strings of elk amounting in the aggre- 

 gate probably to a thousand head. Most of the bands 

 were above the snow-line some appearing away back 

 toward the ridge crests, and looking as small as mice. 

 There was one band well below the snow-line, and tow- 

 ard this we rode. While the elk were not shy or wary, 

 in the sense that a hunter would use the words, they were 

 by no means as familiar as the deer; and this particular 

 band of elk, some twenty or thirty in all, watched us 

 with interest as we approached. When we were still half 

 a mile off they suddenly started to run toward us, evi- 

 dently frightened by something. They ran quartering, 

 and when about four hundred yards away we saw that 

 an eagle was after them. Soon it swooped, and a year- 

 ling in the rear, weakly, and probably frightened by the 



