THE AMERICAN ELK DOMESTICATED. 



[From Cattaraugus Co. Report.] 



Mr. George Stratton, of Little Valley, has been experimenting 

 for a few years past with a view to test the practicability of 

 domesticating elk; and for this purpose enclosed a tract of very 

 hilly land, well wooded for ranging and browsing. His animals are 

 so well trained that he has driven several of them to the three last 

 fairs of Cattaraugus Co. without any difficulty, where they attrac- 

 ted great attention. In answer to a note of inquiry, Mr. Stratton 

 has furnished the following interesting paper, and it is hoped that 

 the suggestions it contains may attract attention. The success 

 attending Mr. Stratton's experiments thus far certainly argues 

 well for more extended efforts. 



Dear Sir : — I came in possession of my first pair of elk in the 

 spring of 1853, in the course of trade with the agents of a Wes- 

 tern Fur Company, who had purchased the fawns of a tribe of 

 Indians on some of the head branches of the Missouri river. At 

 the time of my purchase I had no other object in view than the 

 hope of reprotlucing a few and having the pleasure of seeing a herd of 

 these magnificent foresters quietly feeding on the identical grounds 

 where nature had once planted and provided for their ancestors 

 in untold numbers. In view of their rapid decrease on the ap- 

 proach of civilization, and the threatening j)rospect of extermina- 

 ting tlie entire race, I have deemed it somctliing more than idle 

 curiosity to preserve from destruction some of the characteristics 

 of our American forests. It is not yet lilty years since the elk 

 were so numerous in this county that the Indian or pioneer trap- 

 per, after fiirnisliiiig his store of j)rovisions for his breakfast, 

 miglit witli coiitidcnce expect to suj) on a clioice cut from tlie sur- 

 loin of an elk; and tlie Indian is now liviii<; who can boast of kil- 

 ling three elk in one day within an hundred rods of where 



