362 THE BEST OF THE FUN 



1 1,000 feet to 12,000 feet, the latter being the height of the 

 perpendicular of snow-capped cliffs surrounding the valley 

 you have made your temporary home. Happily, most of 

 this work is done upon horseback. Well, this morning 

 our most pressing and immediate object was fresh meat ; 

 our more keen ambition was elk, of which we had already 

 seen ample sign, even in the hoof-mark of a massive bull. 

 Our quest took us up stream, and, after a mile or so of 

 stiff climbing over wooded hills, where the only road- 

 makers would seem to have been game and Indians, we 

 entered a long strip of park land, and a useful little spike 

 or yearling buck soon afterwards fell to my companion's 

 rifle. We wasted only such time as was necessary in 

 making him ready for saddle and supper, and hanging upon 

 a tree, before proceeding along the connecting stretches of 

 park through which the narrowing river tinkled its down- 

 ward way. We took our path through the trees bordering 

 a wet and open strip, whose width could not at this point 

 have been more than about 200 yards. A distant whistle 

 caught my ear. " What was that ? " I asked. " A bird, I 

 guess," replied the judicial one ; and my mind was con- 

 tentedly relapsing into rest, when again the whistle sounded, 

 nearer and shriller. " A bull elk bugling ! " burst from the 

 lips of both of us, and the Judge even sounded a reply on 

 an old dog-whistle of mine, whose note happens to bear 

 a curious similarity to the bugle-call of the male elk. 

 Whether by accident or otherwise, an answer came back 

 at once. " Off your horse, captain, and hide yourself. I 

 will tie both these out of sight in the timber." And a few 

 seconds later we were hidden silently under cover of the 

 trees, watching eagerly for call to further action, while my 

 English retriever crouched between us. See, a brown form 

 moving in the opposite wood — another, and another — a 

 whole bunch of them. And out issued a placid-looking 

 cow elk, followed by her yearling, and gradually by a 

 whole string ; fourteen of various ages and kinds, but no 

 old bull. 



" My stars, what meat ! " whispered my comrade, his 

 thoughts reverting hungrily to the camp fire and to three 

 days of salt provisions. "There ain't no big bull ; shoot 



