When we were all ready for the hunt and had started to walk away from the tent, Capt.  Mills requested the Colonel to have the horses in readiness to pack the deer in.  We had not gone far until I asked them if they could not walk without making so much noise.  Lieut.  Harding said he did not see what difference it made how a person walked, and I had to stop and explain matters by telling them that a deer depended as much on his ears as he did on his eyes, and if we did not walk easier the deer would hear us before we could get sight of them, and it seemed to me that they had stepped on every stick along our way and had rubbed against every brush that we passed near.  Having been trained to hunt since a boy of fifteen years old, it became second nature for me to slide along without making a particle of noise.

After traveling a short distance we saw four deer coming toward us, and I pointed out an opening and said:  “When they get to that place I will stop them; be ready, and when I count three, fire.”  When the deer were all on the selected spot I gave a keen whistle, which caused them to stop and throw up their heads.  I counted three and fired, but did not hear the report of the other guns.  Just as I turned to see what was the trouble, Capt.  Mills fired, but Lieut.  Harding stood and held his gun at a “ready” and did not fire at all.  He said the sight was so pretty that he did not think of his gun.  I killed my deer, and the Captain wounded his by breaking one fore leg.  The other deer gave a few jumps and stopped, and I took the Lieutenant’s gun and shot it dead.  We now had two deer and were only about a mile from camp.  I left the two officers to dress the venison and I went back to camp after a horse to pack it in.  While I was away, and before they had got the fallen game dressed, two other deer came along within gunshot of them.  The two officers fired at them and killed one deer, both claiming the honor of the fatal shot.  Now we had plenty of meat for a start, and would, no doubt, get more before we consumed that.

After arriving at camp with the deer I directed Jake, the negro cook, to get an early dinner, as I wanted to take a big hunt that afternoon.

While at the dinner table I suggested that as they could find deer anywhere around there, for they were as thick as sheep and not very wild, that they might kill that kind of game, while I would mount Pinto and prospect for larger, for I thought there were elk in that country, and if that was true we wanted some of them.

After dinner I mounted my horse and was off for an elk hunt.  After riding up the river about three miles I could see any amount of sign.  Dismounting and tying my horse, I took an elk trail where a band had just crossed the trail on which I was riding, and I did not follow it very far until I came in sight of the elk.  There were eight in this band, and I had to take a roundabout course to get in gunshot of them, but when I finally did get a shot at them I killed an elk that carried the largest pair of horns I have ever seen, with one exception.  I unjointed his neck about a foot from his head and dressed him, but left his hide on.  The head and horns were all I could lift as high as the horse’s back.