The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-09-30

coat; no scems endowed with I charmst
life, no bullet cast Of lead can ever reach
him. OF course q ball OF silver might,
have mover tried that, and ! do not rsmem'
Dor that amy Cresus ever went about rid
ding innumcrable bushes with Costly pro
~jectiles in hopea OF securing the Graa
stag. / doubt, too, that he would hnv'
succeeded, indeed ! feel sure that nc huntei
armed with auch infallible missiles will
ever mcet with st. Hubert's Hart. He Ii
too saeacious to allow IL, or, II he did, b!
would not long remain in sight. he woult
simply show himself and snort and stamp
know it, for l have watched him
then fade away, like the Cat II
Wonderland, the scornful gaze being the
last thing to vanish into thin air. .Hs
leaves a good track for n little while, bu!
this, too, fades away completely. Once
followed it fos miles, hut it disappeared al
last in y thickly-srown bottomland, and nc
doubt the phantom buck himself had van
ished at the self same place. An Indian
who was hunting with me Thought other
wise, and persisted III circling Oh In another
direction, so that we parted, but he was a fool,
again to camp, bringing with him an ordl-
nary buck, / could not but smile to see hcw
completely he had boon batlled.
It has never been decided even of what
species he Is: some testimony points one
way and some in another. For my own
part ! do not believe that he is n species at
all, but a genus-genns COryus, nothing
more. One recent writer, however. claims
that he was an elk, and was known for long
in Pennsylvania az .'the lone elk of the
Sinnemahoning," in which valley he was
killed in 1867. But that, of course, is all
nonsense. No, no! / now too much about
him to believe any such tale. You cannot
sail under great billowy clouds of canvas,
till the last trump blows and the kraken
lashes all the sea to foam, and belly up-
ward floats to show the end has come.
No, mo-! Still he roams and bounds from
hill to hill as I have seen and vet may see
again. Yea, even now do l ace in fancy's
eye along my glistening rifle barrel-again
I see that glorious head against the sky.
as often | did-more often in early days
than now, for lie appears most often to the
tyro in the woods-see hin give one great
bound when cracks the ready rifle, and
the unerring ball was turned aside that this
indeed the mighty stag again, the
spirit of the race, and that no bullet cast of
lead can ever graza his hide-and again he
fades away.
Long may he roam and spurn tho hilltops
With his flying feet and dash the dew drops
the highest pine tops as he clears the
'alley at a bound; long may he live and
empt a perfect hail of harmless lead. But
he rattle of repeaters is heard in every
ALLEY now; the wise are more and more
~propounding that unbelievable
iddle, "Where have all the deer eone?''
md when at last the sole remainder OF the
ommon race is slain, I know too we'll that
his the immortal. too, will die; that
hough he never can be touched by death
9 yet will perish, perish like the last sur
living Cambrian bard, not by the hand of
IAN, but by strange engulfment go COM
lete that no trace of him will e'er be found
gain, and but a fading menoryiof his ever
aving been.-Forest and Stream.