Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1908-11-20

sank deeply; as a consequence, was
all out Of breath and my hand 80 I'M
steady that | missed my first shot.
Elk, however. do not vanish with
the instantaneous rapidity Of fright
ened deer, and these three trotted off
in direction quartering to us. | doubt
IL / ever went through more violent
exertion than In the next ten min
utes. We raced after them at full
speed. opening fire; l wounded all
three, but none Of the wounds were
Immediately disabling. They trotted
on and we painted afterwards, slipping
on the wet earth, pitching headlong
over charred stumps, leaping on dead
logs that broke beneath our weight
more than once measuring our full
length on the ground, halting and fir
ing whenever we got chance. At
last one bull fell: we passed him by
after the others which were still run
ming uphill. The sweat streamed into
my eyes and made furrows In the
sooty mud that covered my face, from
having fallen full length down on the
burnt earth; | sobbed for breath as
toiled at shambling trot after them.
as nearly done out as could well be.
At this moment they turned down-hill.
1t was great relief man who Is
too done up to go steep uphill can
still run fast enough down: with last
spurt ! closed In near enough to fire
again; one elk fell; the other went of
at walk. We passed the second elk
and | kept on alone after the third.
not able to go at more than slow trot
myself and too much winded to dare
risk a shot at any distance. He got
out Of the burnt patch. going into some
thick timber In a deep ravine; 1 closed
pretty well, and rushed after him Into
a thicket Of young evergreens. Hardly
was In when there was a scramble
and bounce among them and l caught
a glimpse Of q yellow body moving out
to one side; ran out toward the edge
and nred through the twigs at the
moving beast Down It went. but
when / ran up. to my disgust l found
that l had jumped and killed. In my
haste, a black-tail deer, which must
have been already reused by the pas
sage Of the wounded elk. 1 at once
took up the trail Of the latter again.
but after a little while the blood grew
less, and ceased, and l lost the track:
nor could nnd It. hunt as hard as
might. The poor beast could not have
gone FIVE hundred yards; yet we never
found the carcass.
Then I walked slowly back past the
deer I had slain by so curious mis-
chance, to the elk. The frst one shot
down was already dead. The second
was only wounded. though 1t could not
rise. When II saw US coming 1t sought
to hide from US by laying Its neck nat
on the ground, but when we came up
close It raised its head and looked
proudly at us, the heavy name bris-
Ting up on the neck, while Its eyes
glared and Its teeth grated together.
/ felt really sorry to kill It. Though
these were both well-known elks. their
antlers, OF ten points, were small.
twisted. and ill-shaped.Nn fact hardly
worth preserving. except to call to
mind a chase In which during a few
minutes | did as much downright hard
work as II has often fallen to my lot
to do. The burnt earth had blackened
our faces and hands till we looked like
negroes
The finest bull, with the best head
that | got. was killed in the midst OF
very beautiful and grand surroundings.
We had been hunting through a great
pine wood which ran up TO the edge
OF a broad canyon-like valley. bounded
by sheer walls OF rock. There were
fresh tracks OF elk about, and we had
been advancing up wind with even
more than our usual caution when. on
stepping out into patch OF open
ground. near the edge Of the cliff. we
came upon u great bull, beating and
thrsshing his antlers against a young
tree, about eighty yards on. He
stopped and faced us for second. his
mighty antlers thrown In the air. as he
held his head aloft Behind him tow
cred the tall and sombre pines, while
at his feet the jutting crags overhung
the deep chasm below, that stretched
or between high walls OF barren and
snow-streaked rocks. the eyergreens
clinglng 10 their sides while along the
bottom the rapid torrent gathered in
places into black and sullen mountain
lakes. As the bull turned to run l
struck him just behind the shoulder;
he reeled TO the desth-blow. but stag
gered gamely on a few rods into the
forest before sinking TO the ground,
with my second bullet through his
lungs.
Two or three days later than this
killed another bull. nearly as large, In
the same patch OF woods in which |
had slain the frst A bear had been
feeding on the carcass OF the latter
and. after vain effort to ind his den.
we determined to beat through the
woods and try to start him up. Ac-