The Wapiti or Round- horned Elk 163 



showed no signs of stopping ; fortunately his trail 

 did not cross any other. The blood signs grew 

 infrequent, and two or three times he went up 

 places which made it difficult for me to believe 

 he was much hurt. At last, however, I came to 

 where he had lain down ; but he had risen again 

 and gone forward. For a moment I feared that 

 my approach had alarmed him, but this was evi- 

 dently not the case, for he was now walking. I 

 left the trail, and turning to one side below the 

 wind I took a long circle and again struck back 

 to the bottom of the valley down which the wapiti 

 had been travelling. The timber here was quite 

 thick, and I moved very cautiously, continually 

 halting and listening, for five or ten minutes. 

 Not a sound did I hear, and I crossed the valley 

 bottom and began to* ascend the other side with- 

 out finding the trail. Unless he had turned off 

 up the mountains I knew that this meant he must 

 have lain down ; so I retraced my steps and with 

 extreme caution began to make my way up the 

 valley. Finally I came to a little opening, and 

 after peering about for five minutes I stepped 

 forward, and instantly heard a struggling and 

 crashing in a clump of young spruce on the 

 other side. It was the wapiti trying to get on 

 his feet. I ran forward at my best pace, and as 

 he was stiff and slow in his movements I was 

 within seventy yards before he got fairly under 



