SPORT AND TRAVEL 287 



had been two big bulls near the herd, which we had 

 never seen. With the superior cunning of old bull 

 wapiti, they had, I suppose, kept ahead of the cows, 

 and left the open ground just before daylight. 



Following up their tracks, we found that they had 

 been lying down in the thick timber below the ridge, 

 about two hundred yards away from the hinds when I 

 fired at the young bull. However, even had there 

 been no hinds, and we had only followed up the tracks 

 of the two old bulls, I don't think that I should ever 

 have got a shot at them. They would almost cer- 

 tainly have heard us before we saw them, and trotted 

 quietly away in the thick forest. Thinking that a 

 single shot with a .3C3-bore rifle could not have dis- 

 turbed them very much, we spent several hours trying 

 to circumvent them. Noting the line which they 

 appeared to be taking, I made wide circles to try to 

 get in front of them, and then took up a position on 

 the side of one of the ravines which scored the moun- 

 tain-side, and gave me a view over a certain amount 

 of open ground. Graham would give me an hour's 

 start, and then take up the spoor, hoping to disturb 

 the old bulls in thick timber, and drive them forwards 

 across the open ravine I was watching. However, I 

 never saw them, and we came to the conclusion that 

 the forests in the Rocky Mountains are too large and 

 thick to render the success of such a stratagem very 

 likely. In the afternoon we returned to the carcass 

 of the young bull, which we gralloched in order to 



