172 WAPITI

spring. But in Kootenay neither the spring, summer,
nor winter range is ever touched by cattle to any extent,
and but few of the bottom lands—where willow, birch,
alder abound, and which are eagerly browsed on at all
times—are yet put under cultivation. In consequence
our wapiti never have to worry much about their food
supply, except when the winter happens to be unusually
severe.

Of all the deer tribe the bull wapiti is the most imposing.
The moose, of course, far surpasses him in size and may
be a more grand and awe-inspiring animal, the mule deer
may excel him in grace and symmetry, the white-tail in
suppleness and agility, and the caribou in sleekness of
coat and perfection of action, but for stateliness and
noble bearing the wapiti bull is the king of them all.
Wapiti cows can hardly be considered models of beauty,
as they are ewe-necked and, especially the very old ones,
inclined to be camel-headed, but a huge old bull wapiti,
when seen striding along with his slow, loose-jointed, yet
picturesque and easy, swinging gait, across an open,
park-like hillside, or following along the dry gravel bars
of some winding creek bed, with his head outstretched
and his magnificent horns thrown back almost to his rump,
is a sight for the gods, a sight that once seen will linger
for ever in your recollections. Writing of these grand
beasts takes my memory back to the spectacle that an
enormous bull once presented to my fascinated gaze—a
spectacle that always appears to me whenever I see,
think, or talk of these animals. I only wish my powers
were sufficient to describe to you in an adequate manner
what I witnessed.

The incident that you are going to hear about happened
during one of my wanderings in Kootenay. In company
with another man I was travelling the upper reaches of
the Fording River which, at that season of year—about
the third week in September—was nothing more than a
gravel bed about fifty yards wide with no water in it at all,
though during the spring freshets that same bed would
be a raging torrent.

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