182 THE WAPITI. 



timber. It is seldom an experienced hunter 

 ventures to risk a shot when stalking, until within 

 twenty yards of the moose. 



AMERICAN ELK* or WAPITI (Cervus canaden- 

 sis, Exl.). This magnificent deer has a greater 

 range, and is more widely and generally distri- 

 buted, than any other deer in North-western 

 America. It is found along the entire coast 

 range from California to Sitka, on Vancouver 

 Island, and on several of the islands in the Gulf 

 of Georgia, on the east and west slopes of the 

 Cascade Mountains, on the western slope of 

 the Rocky Mountains, reaching an altitude in 

 summer of 7,000 feet above the sea. I saw 

 herds of these elks in the Klamath district; they 

 grow to a large size in these rich pastures, at- 

 taining a weight of from 500 to 700 pounds. 

 The antlers are enormous in the adult animal, 

 measuring six feet from tip to tip, and eleven 

 inches in circumference above the burr. I 

 scarcely think there are sufficient grounds for 

 making this Oregon Elk a distinct species; it 

 seems to me to be a well-marked variety only of 

 the wapiti common to the eastern side of the 

 Rocky Mountains. The wapiti on the Oregon 



* I use tlie term Elk, for the Wapiti, in its local sense. 

 Strictly, it applies only to the Moose. 



