Inter-Ocean Hunting Tales

HERD OF ELK.
Copyright, 1908, By Forest and Stream Publishing Co.
In this volume will be found a series of articles which in recent years have appeared in Forest and Stream . The incidents recounted took place in widely separated parts of the United States and Canada.
As time slips by there is a pleasure in recalling hunting exploits which have become relegated to a past that can be lived over again only in memory. Whoever feels the sportsman’s ardor kindle when blood red tales of the hunt are related—an ardor which the camera enthusiast, who possesses merely a platonic love of sport cannot appreciate—may discover an excuse for this book. Its style may strike one as somewhat informal and lacking in literary finish, but it should be borne in mind that too much formality is likely to take away the charm of camp life.
If you picture yourself seated on a log by the open camp-fire you will not be apt to criticize the absence of polish in the composition of the text. You would as soon ask your guide to substitute patent leather shoes for his greased boots.
May, 1908.
In the fall of 1896 I decided upon taking a hunting trip to the White River country in Colorado. At that time the White River country was well supplied with game and might almost be considered a sportsman’s paradise, or, as an Indian described it to me, like the “happy hunting grounds.” Deer were very plentiful, and around Hayden and in California Park antelope were numerous, although very shy. Bull elk occasionally adorned the landscape with their imposing presence and splendid spread of antlers. The cougar was heard occasionally, although never seen unless hunted with dogs. Old “Silver Tip” frequented the neighborhood, but had a way of making his bulky form vanish like some apparition. His depredations, where he had mangled the carcass of some animal or disturbed the habitations of a lot of small fry under a rotten log, furnished evidence of his presence. There was enough large game in the country to give some idea of what it had been at a time when the Redskin was the undisputed proprietor of the soil.