44 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



partment of Agriculture. The outlying records (marked with 

 X on the map) are as follows: 



In Mexico by Guzman, as already given. 



On the north-west by Lord, who says, in 1866:*^ "It 

 is found along the entire coast range from California to 

 Sitka." 



A single skull found in Nova Scotia^® seems to extend the 

 range to that Province; an extension that one is fully prepared 

 for, after a study of the faunal areas of the region. 



The Ottawa Valley was well known as Elk country until 

 about one hundred years ago. According to W. P. Lett,^° 

 Elk were quite numerous there in early days, and were seen as 

 late as 18 14. Antlers are often found in the swamps of the 

 region. 



H. Y. Hind says:" "Charles Tache enumerates the Elk 

 and Ground-hog as common about the Saguenay previous to 

 1823. * * * The Moose also was very common." 



At the Sportsman's Show, New York, March 2, 1899, 

 L. Z. Joncas, Superintendent of Fish and Game for the 

 Province of Quebec, exhibited three Wapiti heads taken near 

 Lake Victoria, at the sources of the Ottawa, in Pontiac country, 

 about 1896. Several small bands of the primitive Elk, he 

 was told, still exist in those wilds. He personally did not fol- 

 low the matter up, and the record is very questionable. 



The great Basin between the Rockies and the coast range 

 seems never to have been the home of the Wapiti, at least I 

 can find no records covering the region. 



numbS '^^^ early accounts of travel in Eastern America during 



the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries abound 

 with descriptions of the "great stagge." 



Among these early writers we find frequent use of such 

 terms as "immense bands," "great numbers," "great store," 

 "covered with stags," etc., etc., describing the abundance of 



'^ J. K. Lord, Naturalist in Vancouver Id. and Br. Col., 1866, Vol. II, p. 182. 



»«W. Ogilby, P. Z. S., VII, 1839, pp. 93-94. 



""Trans. Ottawa Nat. Field Club, 1884, No. 5, pp. 101-117. 



*' Expl. Labrador Penin., 1863, Vol. I, p. 224. 



