RANDOM SHOTS FROM A HUNTER'S CAM J'. 



63 



greatly enhanced. Success in hunting, 

 1 hold, decreases in the inverse ratio to 

 the increase in the number of people in 

 the party. 



But if for the sake of company, or for 

 other reasons, you prefer the party to 

 consist of several persons, great care 

 ought to be exercised in selecting your 

 companions. For days, weeks, or months, 

 perhaps, you will live in an intimacy im- 

 possible under almost any other circum- 

 stances ; and once in the wilderness 

 these conditions cannot be changed. 

 But you may be lucky enough, as I once 

 was, to fall in with ten or a dozen gentle^ 

 men among whom there was scarce a word 

 spoken, or an act committed, to which 

 even a fastidious person might object. 



On the contrary, your lot might be 

 cast among fellows who shirk their share 

 of the camp duties, or who are given to 

 meaningless profanity, or who affect 

 topics and a tone of conversation con- 

 stantly offensive. 



Every party, large or small, must have 

 a head to it, if trouble, disappointment, 

 aye, even disaster, are to be averted. 

 But let no one be ambitious to attain the 

 honor or shoulder the burdens of this 

 thankless task. The duties are annoy- 

 ing and troublesome at best, during the 

 life of the expedition, and are apt to be 

 doubly so in settling up the finances in 

 the end, unless the captain has taken 

 precaution to estimate liberally for the 

 money required, and has collected 

 enough in advance. He would much 

 better have a surplus to distribute than 

 to be under the necessity of assessing for 



a deficit. In the last case, he may be so 

 unwise as to liquidate the bills out of his 

 own pocket, and then wait a long time, 

 a very long time, perhaps, to be reim- 

 bursed for his outlay. 



The captain should have nearly abso- 

 lute power in the direction and manage- 

 ment of all the affairs of the party. 

 Among other disagreeable duties, he 

 ought to require personal neatness of 

 every member of the outfit. Now I ad- 

 mit that no small part of the joy of 

 camp life is the freedom from the re- 

 straint and conventionalities of one's 

 customary life ; but it ought not to ex- 

 tend so far that any one could think it 

 not incumbent upon him to take an oc- 

 casional bath, albeit the water is usually 

 cold as ice itself. 



On one trip a few years ago, after 

 traveling some days through the Yellow- 

 stone Park, we made camp high up in 

 the Shoshone Mountains, and the first 

 thing set about getting fresh meat for the 

 larder. The party divided up into three 

 pairs, each setting out in a different di- 

 rection, determined to win the prize 

 agreed to be bestowed on the man or 

 men who first brought meat into camp. 

 After allowing the others to select their 

 routes, I set out to skirt along just be- 

 low the brow of the mountain in such a 

 way as to cut across well up to the head 

 of the coulees leading down to the river. 

 Within an hour I had an elk ; in fact I 

 killed three, believing, however, that I 

 had shot only the one. It happened in 

 this way : The elk were jumped in an 

 open grove of young fir trees. The first 



"OFF FOR A LONG JAUNT. 



