Stewart harbored a strong penchant for hunting and, like the members of t his troop, a taste for elk meat. It is therefore no wonder that of the 87 studies and sketches of the summer’s trip to the Rockies that Miller set aside as a special, bound souvenir album, three picturing the captain shooting elk. In this dramatic composition, Stewart is paired with a fellow hunter, probably his trusted companion Antoine. Together they fire down on two surprised bull elk that try, no doubt fruitlessly, to escape the wily stalkers.
Miller painted a large watercolor of this scene for William Walters (CR# 125A) but made no larger version than this for Stewart, so this small pictorial document was all the inveterate explorer had as a memento. Yet, despite its diminutive scale, the work has an impressively monumental feeling. Miller’s painterly gesture is grand, and the subject enjoys an immensely emotional embrace.
Peter H. Hassrick
Hunting Method:
Mountain men figured out how best to hunt elk and this game meat soon became a favorite. In his journal, trapper Osbourne Russell chronicled numerous observations of elk. In one instance he discerned: “They are very timid and harmless even when so disabled as to render escape impossible its speed is very swift when running single but when running in large bands they soon become wearied by continual collision with each other and if they are closely pursued by the hunter on horse back they soon commence dropping down flat on the ground to elude their pursuers and will suffer themselves to be killed with a knife in this position: when the band is first located the hunters keep at some distance behind to avoid dispersing them and to frighten them … I never known one to offer resistance in defense of itself against man otherwise than by involuntary motions of its head or feet when too much disabled to raise from the ground.”
Similarly, German-born American physician and naturalist, Frederic Wislizenus recorded his assessment of the peculiarities exhibited by this creature: “The elk is very skittish and has a keen sense of smell; but is also very curious. He must see the object of his fears, and often runs directly toward the hunter whom he has only scented. But as soon as he sees him, he stares at him a moment; then, with antlers thrown back and head held high, he rushes away like an arrow.”
Rutting Season:
Though trappers were not naturalists, Russell made some noteworthy observations of elk behavior: “In the month of Septr. the males have a peculiar shrill call which commences in a piercing whistle and ends in a coarse gurggling in the throat by this they call the females to assemble and each other to the combat in which by their long antlers they are rendered formidable to each other the hair stands erect and the head is lowered to give or receive the attack but the Victor seldom pursues the vanquished.”
As a witness to the fall elk rut, Wisilizenus judiciously recognized that, “in August and September, the pairing season, there are fierce encounters between the bucks. It is then most unadvisable to approach an elk that is merely wounded; for he will defend himself to the bitter end with antler and hoof, and even assume the offensive.”
Elk Mistaken for Riders:
It was not uncommon for a distant herd of antlered bull elk to be mistaken for a group of mounted men. Wislizenus told of such an instance when their scout, “had seen a whole band of mounted Indians, one or two miles off, coming toward us in full career. We surmised that they were Blackfeet and prepared for a serious encounter … All this took but a few minutes … One of us crept the while to the edge of the timber to reconnoiter. ‘There they come,’ he suddenly cried, ‘Come here quick!’ We hurried to him, and saw with astonishment a whole troop – not of Blackfeet, to be sure, – but of elk rushing toward us. They had not yet seen us, because we were hid behind bushes; but they scented us, and, with their customary curiosity, ran up to us. All at once our rifles cracked … Such mistakes, however, are not uncommon in mountain life. At a distance an elk, especially if he throws back his head, looks very much like a horseman.”
Trapper Warren Ferris recorded a similar faux pas when some of the party hunters spotted what seemed to be, “the appearance of a large party of horsemen, on the opposite side of the river. Some of us concluded they were the same party of Indians, who had promised the R. M. F. Co. to come and trade … A party sallied out to obtain information, and soon ascertained that a large herd of elk had caused the alarm. These animals, when frightened or startled, throw up their heads, which their long necks enable them to do quite high, and have at a distance, much of the appearance of a band of horsemen – I mention this circumstance, because when they are advancing, or retiring, at a distance of three or four miles, the most sagacious Indians are often deceived by them; and cases when horsemen are mistaken for elk are by no means uncommon.”
Jim Hardee & Clay Landry
For Further Reading:
Ferris, Warren A., Life in the Rocky Mountains
Russell, Osbourne, Journal of a Trapper
Wisilizenus, Frederic, A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1839
