810 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



" 'Long about ten years ago, when I was raound out 

 Montana way, Elk huntin' was good 'nough fer me. 

 I didn't mind chasin' over rough, bust-up ground then, 

 or climbin' mount'ins as high as trees grew. Elk 

 weren't so hard to git, winter or summer, for they go 

 in sort of flocks, and when you'd see one you'd likely 

 strike a bunch, but Moose are lonesomer and only travel 

 in slim families. In summer all you needed for Elk 

 was a little know-how and a long-range gun, for though 

 they're scary beasts they are kind of stupid 'bout some 

 things, and don't put two and two togetlier as quick as 

 some others. While they are a figurin', in comes yer 

 shot. Of course if a stag sees yer, he's likely to give a 

 whistle and set the bunch runnin', but anyway you 

 can't expect fourfoots to wait for yer to come up and 

 sprinkle salt on 'em, any more than birds. 



"Elks don't have an easy life. In winter the poor 

 things come down to git in warm hollers where they 

 could paw the snow away and find grass, and if the 

 snow was deep they'd gnaw bark and flounder araound, 

 so it Avas easy gittin' them. Deer's fine huntin' too, if 

 yer go at it right, and good sport; but there's too 

 many short cuts through sneak trails that folks has got 

 in ther habit er takin', and then braggin' of their kill, 

 — it jest about sickens real sportsmen ! " 



" Please, Nez," said Rap, " you say Moose, Elk, and 

 Deer ; aren't Moose and Elk both Deer ? "' 



" Yes, o' course they air by rights, — it's only a way 

 o' speakin'. Anywhere I've been, if yer say jest Deer, 

 without any other handle, it means common Deer, Vir- 

 ginny Deer, or what Doc calls American Deer, because 

 it's the one best known from Canady to the Gulf. A 



