A HUNTER'S CAMP-FIRES 



bull arose from where it had been lying behind some bowlders 

 and walked out into the open. It raised a massive antlered 

 head and gazed down the canon at the departing cows, but 

 shifted its attention in my direction when the first shot threw 

 a spurt of dust from a bowlder at its feet. The bull was broad- 

 side to me at the second report and made one mighty plunge 

 forward, whirled, and dropped dead, facing the direction from 

 which it had started. The bullet from my rifle had completely 

 shattered its heart. 



This bull carried a fine twelve-point head, larger than any 

 sets of antlers which I had seen in looking at a large number 

 of heads -during a trip to Wyoming the previous month. The 

 measurements of these antlers were, respectively: Right — length 

 on outer curv^e, fifty-four inches; circumference of base, ten 

 inches; left — length on outer curve, fifty-one and one-half 

 inches; circumference of base, nine and one-half inches; widest 

 spread from tip to tip, forty-one inches. The upper canines, 

 locally known as the ivories, were almost black in color and 

 polished to a fine gloss. Ed claimed that they were worth 

 about fifty dollars to the persons who carried on an illegal 

 traffic in elk teeth. Fortunately since that time this slaughter 

 of these magnificent animals for their teeth, done mostly in 

 the deep snows of early spring, when the bulls do not carry 

 any antlers and the meat is hardly palatable, has been stopped 

 by the settlers of the countr>\ 



As it was already late in the afternoon by the time we had 

 dressed the elk, we decided to ride back to camp and return to 

 the scene with the pack-train on the following day. About four 

 o'clock we started down the caiion, an elk-quarter tied behind 

 one saddle and a bearskin behind the other. Darkness over- 

 took us a long distance from camp, and for hours the horses 

 stumbled along in the starlight. About ten o'clock they prac- 

 tically played out, and during the remainder of the journey we 

 groped our way along on foot, leading, pushing, and pulling the 



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