Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1908-10-09

shoulders with his horns. There were
several cows around him, and n saw
me Immediately, and took alarm. l
fired into the bulls shoulder, inficting
a mortal wound; but he went off, and
1 raced after him at top speed. firing
twice into bis flank; then he stopped.
very sick, and I broke his neck with a
fourth bullet. An elk often hesitates
in the 1rst moments Of surprise and
fright, and does not get really under
way for two or three hundred yards;
but, when one fairly started, he may
go several miles, even though MORALLY
wounded; therefore, the hunter, after
his first shot, should run forward as
fast as he can, and shoot again and
again until the quarry drops. In this
way many animals that would other
wise be lost are obtained, especially
by the man who has a repeating
rifle.
The elk l thus slew was a giant
His body was the size of a steers,
and his a~ntlers, though not unusually
long, were very massive and heavy.
He lay In q glade, on the edge of a
great cliff. Standing On its brink we
overlooked a most beautiful country.
the home Of all homes for the elk: a
wilderness of mountains. the immense
evergreen forest broken by park and
glade, by meadow and pasture, by
bare hillside and barren table-land.
Some FIVE miles off lay the sheet of
water known to the old hunters as
Spotted Lake; two or three shallow,
sedgy places, and spots of geyser for
nation, made pale green blotches or
Its wind-rippled surface. Far to the
southwest, in daring beauty and maj
esty, the grand domes and lofty spires
Of the Tetons shot into the blue
sky.
That night, as on more than n
night afterward. a bull elk came down
whistling to within two or three hun
dred yards of the tents, and tried to
Join the horse herd. The moon had
set, SO I could not go after 1t. Elk are
very restless and active throughout
the night In the rutting season; but
where undisturbed they feed freely in
the daytime. resting for two or three
hours about Dol
Next day, which was rainy, we spent
in getting In the antlers and meat OF
the two dead elk; and shot off the
heads or two or three blue grouse on
the way home. The following day !
killed another bull elk. following him
by the strong, not unpleasing. smell
and hitting him twice as he ran, al
about eighty yards. So far had had
good luck, killing everything l had
shot at; but now the luck changed.
through no fault of mine, as far as
could see, and Ferguson had his In
nings. The day after I killed this
bull he shot two fine mountain rams;
and during the remainder of our hunt
he killed FIVE elk-one COW, for meat.
and four good bulls. The two rams
were with three others, all old and
with fine horns; Ferguson peeped over
a lofty precipice and saw them COM
ing up 1t only fifty yards below him.
His two first and finest bulls were OBJ
tanned by hard running and good
shooting; the herds were or the move
at the time, and only his speed of foot
and soundness of wind enabled him
to get near enough for a shot. One
herd started before he got close, and
he killed the master bull by a shot
right through the heart, as 1t trotted
past, a hundred and fifty yards dis
tant.
As for me, during the next ten days
l killed nothing save one COW for meat;
and this though l hunted hard every
day from morning till night, no matter
what the weather. Our i'll success was
in part due to sheer bad luck; but the
chief element therein was the presence
of a great hunting party of Shoshone
Indians. Split into bands of eight to
ten each, they secured the whole coun-
try on their tough, sure-footed ponies.
AS they slew whatever they could. but
by preference COWS and calves, and as
they were very ~persevering, but also
very excitable and generally poor shots,
SO that they wasted much powder. they
not only wrought havoc among the elk,
but also scared the survivors out of all
the country over which they hunted.
Day in and day out we plodded on
In a hunting trip the days of long mo-
notony in getting to the ground, and
the days of unrequited toll after it has
been reached, always far outnumber
the red-letter days of success. But 1t is
just these times of failure that really
test the hunter. In the long run, COM
nonsense and logged perseverance
avail him more than any other quail
ties. The man who does not give up,
but hunts steadily and r~esolutely
through the spells of bad luck until the
luck turns, is the mar who wins sue
cess In the end.
After a week at Two-Ocean Pass, we
gathered our pack-animals n frosty
morning, and again set off across the
mountains. A two-days' jaunt took us
to the summit of Wolverine Pass, near
Pinyon Peak, beside a little mountain
49,. 1~nh unn~ntno xvo fosrnd tie IN