RECREA TION. 



197 



tracks following a well worn game trail, 

 which led, slanting, down the hill. 

 There were no signs of blood, but I felt 

 sure I had hit him. Walking with ex- 

 treme caution and peering into all the 

 little ravines and thickets, I had gone 

 about half a mile when, on stooping 

 down and glancing ahead, I saw the elk 

 lying behind a log seventy-five yards 

 distant and looking directly at me. 



" Sitting down quietly, I took careful 

 aim at his neck and fired. The elk 

 staggered to his feet and made for the 

 river. Hastily throwing down the lever 

 and inserting a fresh cartridge, I fired 

 for his shoulder. At the shot he went 

 down on his breast, but regained his 

 feet and started off on three legs. The 

 next shot struck him in the neck, and 

 he went down all in a heap. He was not 

 dead, however, and for fear that he 

 might in his struggles break his antlers 

 on the rocks, I finished him with another 

 shot in the neck. My first sensation was 

 of great satisfaction at killing the finest 

 elk I had ever seen ; my second was 

 a feeling of disgust with the gun for 

 doing it in such a bungling manner. One 

 shot from a proper rifle, in the neck or 

 shoulder, where these miserable little 

 hollow-pointed bullets had struck, would 

 have killed him outright. For fully five 

 minutes I sat and adrr ; ~ed the fallen 

 monarch ; his magnificent, curving ant- 

 lers ; his splendid form and sleek, yel- 

 lowish sides; the fine, long, reddish-black 

 hair of his head and neck. Then, on 

 preparing to bleed and dress him, I 

 found I had forgotten my long-bladed 

 knife, and had only a large pocket- 

 knife with me. With this, however, I 

 dressed the elk and hastened back to 

 camp." 



We went down with horses to bring 

 up the meat and antlers, Keeley accom- 



panying us to get some fresh meat, of 

 which he and Jerry were in need. On* 

 our arrival we found a number of mag- 

 pies and ravens rapidly making way 

 with the entrails, amid a perfect pande- 

 monium of harsh sounds. When they 

 saw us, they flew into neighboring trees 

 and watched our proceedings. 



Having photographed the elk, we 

 skinned and cut him up, and at four 

 o'clock were ready to start back to camp. 

 It was found that the first bullet had 

 cut his liver almost in two, and had 

 lodged under the skin on the other side. 

 The second bullet had barely broken one 

 shoulder and smashed into bits on the 

 big bones, failing to penetrate farther. 

 None of the last three bullets had passed 

 through the neck, which was very thick, 

 even for this season of the year. 



We started for camp and were over- 

 taken by darkness half a mile beyond 

 the lick. Keeley's horse slipped and 

 rolled down a slippery side- hill, but was 

 brought back to the trail. The darkness 

 became so intense when we were yet a 

 mile from camp, that we were forced to 

 build a fire, unpack the horses, and leave 

 the meat and antlers under a tree till 

 morning. The horses being turned 

 loose while the fire was being built, one 

 of them, clumsily, struck against a dead 

 tree, about eight inches in diameter. It 

 fell and just grazed Will's arm — a fortu- 

 nate escape from a broken shoulder. 



All the matches were used in trying 

 to start the fire, and we had a miserable 

 time stumbling about in the darkness. 

 After floundering around for an hour or 

 so, Keeley came along with a torch 

 made from cedar shavings, and we 

 reached camp about eight o'clock. It 

 took us four hours to go less than four 

 miles. The meat and antlers were se- 

 cured the first thing in the morning. 



