The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-25

oedars without fear of being seen by the elk,
 "Just before reaching them l was crossing a long, barren slope, and was greatly disconcerted to see that the elk had changed their feeding ground ana were slowly strolling over a knoll at the head of the slope, They saw me unite as quickly as I did them. Thelr heads went up, and against the Wnlte background of the hill they looked grand. l thought they were apoul eight hundred yards off. As soon as | saw them l reined my horse ana Kept perfectly still. There was not a slhsle bit of cover Cor me to turn to adVan- tage. and my chances for getting an elk seemed small, I expected them to tfot off every moment. They seemed more curious than uneasy, so l decided to move slowly toward them and try Tor surer shot. Well, this was success, Every time they showed signs of alarm checked my horse and remained as rigid as a statue. As soon as they were duieted would move up. This manou- vre was kept up until saw it was be- 1 ing worn threadbare, so, quietly, raised my rife sights to the 6OO-yard notch, which I though about right, slid off my horse, dropped the bridle reins over his head, and fired at young bull,
 "The snow flew on the hill where the bullet struck, and knew had shot too high The effect was to bunch the band and start them off on a rapid trot' l There was no time to lower sights or l take careful aim, but after hastily push | ing home another cartridge and hold ing lower on the center of the bunch as | they ran, I gave them another shot, and was overjoyed to see a young two prong bull drop like a rag. He was shot through the head. l paced the dis | tance and found it to be just over 400 yards. I was sorry to see that my first elk did not possess a pair of antlers which would cherish for the rest of my days but this young bull only had two | straight prongs. What he lacked in bone, however, he made up in fiesh-he was prime eating. l dressed him on the spot, took out the tongue and other choice tidbits, and cleaned him out beautifully with snow Then I went to the cedars to give the boys on the ranch the signal to come up and help me get the elk in-this signal was to be small | fire.
 'As I was breaking the dead limbs l from one of the trees for my fire my l eyes unconsciously swept the miles Of rolling sand hills to the north and were attracted instantly by dark line away off on one of the hills. I thought this odd, because everywhere and on every side was snow-nothing but the tops of the hills and lnolls symetrically round ed by the snow. The object seemed to move at times, but was so far away l could not make it out. As 1 watched l saw another black mass come over the top of a hill much nearer to me, and yet the first one was still in sight. Again I saw another hill mounted and could hardly believe my eyes as l made out that they were elk coming my way.
 Here was a sight! A tremendous mi grafton in progress! Here was some thing which few men had ever seen, l believed. And I believe it now. It called to me the old buffalo days I had read about l laid myself down and barely peeped around the tree. on they came: the leaders passed not over a hundred yards from me. noticed that when the first few had gone by, the elks were still coming over the hill where first saw them A mighty army
 they were. thousands upon thousands of them. They pushed on in an easy swing trot-gracefully, and it seemed almost without exertion They seemed
 to have some organization, because as
 rule they trotted four abreast, and
 when nearly opposite me I saw the first
 four files, the ones that had been in the
 lead, break trail, move to one side and
 rest, and after a time take their place
 in the line near the end. This picture
 is always with ne; I consider myself
 more than fortunate in having beheld it.
 ''After they had passed, and do not
 know how long this took, I went down
 to the trail and examined it. It was
 packed almost as hard as a macada'
 mixed road-the snow, which here was
 nearly two feet deep, being pounded in
 to the soil The trail stretched out as
 far back as the eye could see, dipping
 here and there over the hills-the black
 line the silent evidence of the mighty host that had made it. Shoot? No! would not have shot for worlds. A soli tude seemed to gather abou me. The occasion was one almost oi
 solemnity. In the presence of tha'
 multitude I felt too insignificant to dc anything at all. When the last onC had gone on drew a long breath ant thanked my stars that had seen sucf a magnificent spectacle.
 "No never have tried to make def mite figures as to the number of ell
 in the band. If I knew this it would
 render my recollection of the inciden
 too tame and thus destroy my pleasure
 It has always suited my taste to gener ! alize rather than particularize abou l thia eioht N