374 THE DEER OF AMERICA. 
ground which surrounds them. Instances are related where bands 
of Elk have been thus observed from high, overlooking points, 
when a gale of wind was blowing, whence the hunter has shot 
down a considerable number before the balance would take the 
alarm. They would look upon the struggles’ of the dying in 
amazement, but without suspecting it was the work of an 
enemy. 
There is no doubt that our Elk has less tenacity of life than 
any other American member of the family. I have inflicted a 
wound upon an Elk through the head, quite below the brain, 
and without cutting an artery, and without occasioning much 
hemorrhage, which a common deer would have carried fifty miles, 
and found the Elk dead in half an hour after, and within half a 
mile of the place where he was shot. My own observations have 
been confirmed by the testimony of old hunters of vastly more 
experience than I can claim, and if my recollection rightly 
serves me, the observations of Lewis and Clarke were to the same 
effect. 
I have seen a few accounts of their being pursued with grey- 
hounds on the western plains, by army officers stationed at fron- 
tier posts, but, from the accounts, I judge they are not as gamy 
as the common deer, — though they may equal in endurance the 
European stags, —and they undoubtedly lack the endurance of 
the moose or the caribou. When pursued on horseback the Elk 
makes for broken and rocky ground, if any be accessible, where 
the pursuit usually terminates, but if away on the plains, the 
chase is an exciting and an interesting one. The Elk leads away 
in a rapid trot, which if not broken he holds for a long distance, 
but when forced from this into a run, if the animal be fat, he soon 
breaks down, but if lean he endures it well, and leads a fine chase 
before he is run into. 
None other of our deer fatten so kindly or get so fat as the 
Elk, and possibly this may account for their lack of bottom in 
the chase. 
THE MULE DEER. 
The pursuit of the Mule Deer is almost entirely confined to 
stalking or still hunting. They are found in the high mountains 
as well as in the valleys of the creeks and rivers in the plains. 
Where they are much pursued they are wary, and tax the skill 
of the hunter to approach them. They are fond of browsing on 
the young cottonwoods, which grow along the streams and in 
