Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 June 1894 — HUNTING THE ELK. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HUNTING THE ELK.

WTly It Ha* VtnUtied from tbo Plain* of the West. Elk-bunting on the plains of the West is now a thing of the past, for the elk has been banished from the wide, timberless tracts by the advance of civilization and now seeks refuge in the wild hill lands or timber tracts of mountainous regions. Little over a decade ago the elk roamed in vast herds over the plains and less than two decades ago herds of 1,000 elk were not uncommon sights. Elk-hunting then was an exciting sport and profitable, too. An army lieutenant thus gives an account of a hunt he participated in on the Loup River, Nebraska: Our party swept in a swing! ng gallop over the ridge beyond which were the unsuspecting elk. By the time the dumfounded brutes had “bunched”—

the first act of an affrighted herd—we were right among them. Many of the older hunters dropped their carbines across their saddle-bows, and pulling their revolvers delivered a deadly fire at blinding range. Dashing through this little bewildered herd like a gust of wind, the hunting party swung to the left of the slope of the long ridge where, from 150 to 200 yards away, the main herd had “bunched,” 600 to 800, if not 1,000, strong. With all the rough rattle of shots, the hard hitting of horns against horns, and the drum-like clatter of the hoofs, there was a singular silence, Incongruous with so much rapidly varying excitement; for orders had been given that not a whisper should be heard till the elk had broken in an organized run in a definite course. As the western wall of elk-horns opened in that direction, with a princely buck at the head, there went up from us a yell that clove the very clouds, and scat tered the band only to bunch again. That shout delayed them hardly three seconds, but that three seconds made a success of the hunt, and before it ended we were among them. Far down on my right the Marshal’s carbine had been knocked from hia hand by the horns of a plunging buck, while near me, on the left, a burly corporal, with empty, smoking pistol, brought the barrel down like a club on the head of an elk that was trying, in the crush, to push its way directly over his horse. The elk fdll to the ground stunned. It was hand to hoof and horns for a brief second or two, and then the great surging mass broke and the long chase began. After it was ended we assembled at camp, and then the wagon brought in the carcasses of nineteen elk.

A HERD OF ELK.