70 GAME ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



sion to have followed on an unusually fast pony, a cow Elk whose 

 hind leg he had broken, for two miles before getting- near enough 

 to shoot from the saddle and kill her. In this case every thing 

 favored the horse and he was put through at railroad speed. The 

 Elk was quite thin, and really seemed to run just about as fast 

 after i'eceiving the wound as she did before. 



The most successful method of capturing this royal game is by 

 stalking, though to succeed in approaching a band of Elk requires 

 no little care and skill, and is a good test ol the sportsman's capa- 

 bilities as a still hunter. On the Loup Fork and its branches, in 

 years gone by, the writer has enjoyed glorious sport with this game, 

 and it is no doubt still abundant in the section beyond the settle- 

 ments. 



The Loup is a miniature Platte (of which it is a tributary), in 

 very many respects, and drains with its branches much of north- 

 western Nebraska. The upper Middle Loup, where much of our 

 hunting has been done, has the same broad channel and innumer- 

 able sand-bars. Its low banks and many islands are densely 

 covered with a thick, tall growth of coarse grass, weeds, and willow 

 -brush. The country lying adjacent to this river, and its main 

 branch, the Dismal, is, to say the least, very hilly, being composed 

 of ranges of bluffs lying parallel to the river, and succeeding each 

 other at intervals of one or more miles as far as the eye can reach. 

 The intervening valleys are made up of sharp ridges and steep- 

 sided knolls, usually but a few yards apart. Deep caiions from 

 the river, wind out into the various ranges, furnishing timber of 

 several kinds, including cedar, elm, ash, box-elder, and many brush 

 thickets. The first grows in thick dark clumps along the steep 

 sides, and is intermixed with the latter varieties along - the level 

 floor-like bottoms of the canons. Such grasses as are indigenous 

 ^to the soil, among which is the famous buffalo or gramme grass 

 grow sparsely on the up-lands. The lowlands furnish a rank 

 growth of " blue-stem," or "blue-joint," everywhere common in 

 the West. This country has long been a favorite feeding ground 

 of the Elk, and here for centuries it has been hunted by the Sioux 

 and Pawnees.* 



The outfit necessary for pleasant and successful hunting-in this 

 country, should be, in addition to the usual covered wagon and 



* Eastern Kansas and Nebraska are now so settled up, that the 

 hunter has to proceed coiisiderably west of the Missouri before finding 

 the larger game. 



