THE WAPITI 
but the resident settlers destroy males and females in vast quantities, 
on land, too, that is only fit for game, on the false assumption that it 
must be cleared for the purposes of raising stock, when it has not yet been 
proved that cattle will live there. 
If it were not for naturalists and big game hunters there would be little 
game left in many parts of the world, and as the sport is a legitimate one, 
and the best of all sports for the making of soldiers, it seems a thousand 
pities that the State does not recognize this and appropriate large areas 
of country, that are proved to be useless for farming purposes, and make 
them into great State preserves where big game hunters may be allowed 
to shoot a certain percentage of males. The system has been tried in 
Kashmir, where game was threatened with extinction, and has proved a 
decided success. A head game warden is in charge of the whole of the 
mountain areas and he decides which nullahs may be shot and the number 
of rifles who may annually enter them. The result has been a great increase 
in the ibex, markhor, barasingh, and a satisfaction to the men who go to 
hunt there and leave their money in the country. 
Wapiti hunting is ideal sport because it takes the hunter into some of the 
most beautiful scenery in the world. The pronghorn and the buffalo lived 
in the arid wastes of prairies, infested by rattlesnakes and bleached by 
the sun, whilst the chase of the mountain sheep involves hardships only 
to be endured by the strongest of men. The home of the wapiti calls up 
memories of delightful camps pitched in grassy glades amidst the scent 
of pines, whilst lovely lakes and pellucid streams, stocked with trout, 
are close at hand. How pleasant it is after a hard day’s wandering in the 
woods to come home and lie on an aromatic bed of boughs and smell 
the good logs burning, drink the pure water, and enjoy the appetite that 
only comes from healthy exercise in the clearest and most invigorating 
air in the world. All the best wapiti grounds are, or were, situated over 
6,000 feet in height, and the air there is like champagne without its false 
courage. 
A herd of wapiti, or even a single bull, has a very strong scent, and it 
is often possible to detect their presence by this alone and so to find the 
game. One night in the Big Horns I heard a wapiti bull calling below the 
camp and at the first streak of dawn I crept out and tried to find him by 
myself. I was then a novice at timber hunting, but wanted to kill a bull 
alone if possible and surprise my brother and our hunter when they came 
to breakfast some hours later. The bull was travelling slowly, and after 
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