76 RAMBLES AFTER SPORT. 



at high salaries, as assayers or practical mining engi- 

 neers. " Mining engineer '' sounds a big title, and a real 

 good one is a rara avis ; but sufficient can be learnt in 

 one year in a Cornish mine, with close attention, to 

 enable anyone to command his £400 a year at least in 

 any part of America. 



Well, I have almost forgotten my friends the elk. 

 We struck camp, and went two days due west to the 

 Cascades ; we saw no Indians, at least bad ones, and had 

 the satisfaction of combing out our hair every morning. 

 Still no elk, and I began to think it was a bad job, when 

 one evening we struck sign in abundance. 1 camped 

 immediately, and next morning, having slung up our 

 meat, and cached our things as well as possible, I 

 bestrode Bucephalus and rode off, with the boy behind 

 me, holding on by my waist. I had my W. R. carbine, 

 and the boy was made happy with my Smith and 

 Wesson^s revolver. After a while I hobbled my plug, 

 and putting on my moccasins began to look about me. 

 To look at an elk you would think it would be impossible 

 for such an awkward animal to escape notice if within a 

 half-mile, but the fact is that an elk may be within a yard 

 or two of you — yes, and a whole band of them too — and 

 you^ll not detect a hair or the flicker of an ear. The 

 way a dozen or more of them will charge through a 

 moderately thick forest is perfectly surprising ; it seems, 

 as I heard an old hunter at Astoria say once, that ^' they 

 must take off their horns, and put 'em in their coat-tail 

 pockets.^' We stalked all day without seeing a sign of 

 an elk, till about four o'clock I spied with my bino- 

 cular the herd we were in search of down below us in an 

 open valley. I could make out about ten in sight, and, 

 as luck never comes singly, only about two hundred 



