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their size, indicate that the wapiti of this pai-t of Canada reached the 

 largest size attained by tlie species. Many naturalists imagine that the 

 last occuiTence of the wapiti in this neighbourhood dates back to a 

 period comparatively remote. This, however, is not the case, as facts, 

 more conclusive than even the finding of their horns, can be adduced in 

 proof of those animals having been numerous here less than one hundred 

 years ago. Mr. Rice Honeywell, one of the earliest settlers in this 

 region, positively affirms that within the last seventy years, he has seen 

 the wapiti both alive and dead on the old Thompson farm, within four 

 miles of the City of Ottawa. Mr. Honeywell knows well the difference 

 between a wapiti and a moose, as he frequently saw many of the latter 

 in the same locality. This brings the period of the existence of the 

 wapiti in this locality closer than has been geiierally supposed. The 

 wapiti can be " still hunted " successfully, being less vigilant and much 

 more easily approached than any other variety of deer. In the ISTorth- 

 West the Indians ricle in amongst them, keeping well down on the 

 necks of their horses, and thus frequently succeed in killing a herd of 

 eight or ten in a few minutes. A wounded wapiti is a dangerous, 

 animal to api)roach unprepared, as many a hunter has found out to his 

 cost. 



The cutting down of the forests, the progress of settlement and the 

 resistless march of civilization have driven these noble animals out of 

 their old haunts. The race in this neighl)Ourhood was by no means. 

 exterminated, for there were then but few hunters, and the appliances 

 of slaughter were of a much more primitive description than the arms 

 of precision of the present day. Eifles in Cariada were uiiknown in the 

 days of the wapiti, and the weapons of the Algonquin, the Iroquois and 

 the Abenakis were then the bow and arrow. Like the Indian himself, 

 with his war-paint and scalping knife, the wapiti, before the aggressive 

 strokes of the axe, has had to travel towai-ds the setting sun, and "he is 

 now only to be found in Canada, in any great numbers, in the country 

 around the north and south forks of the Saskatchewan. Parker 

 Gilmore, a famous sportsman, and a naturalist of no mean ox-der, says : 

 " I do not think, from the information I have been able to obtain from 

 searching old authorities who have written on the fauna of North 

 America, that the range of the wapiti ever extended eastward to the 



