32 WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



while other winter yards are found along Logging Creek and one 

 opposite the mouth of Starvation Creek. He would make no esti- 

 mate of the number of moose occupying this region, as, even with 

 his intimate knowledge of their range for many years, such an esti- 

 mate w^ould be a mere- guess; but, from what he and other guides 

 and rangers and other residents of the country have told me, it 

 seems safe to place the probable number in the park at several hun- 

 dred individuals. 



In 1895 I was told that moose were then more numerous in the park 

 than elk. Two had been killed that spring near St. Mary Lake and 

 others were reported in the valleys west of Upper St. Mary and Red 

 Eagle Lakes. At Summit Station I was told by a man who had been 

 there for several years, and had hunted and trapped in the country 

 now included in Glacier Park, that moose were common in the north- 

 ern part of the region, but were being rapidly destroyed by trappers 

 for bear bait. He estimated that for 100 bear that he had known to 

 be caught in that region no less than 500 moose and elk had been shot 

 for bait, and of these more moose than elk. He aclaiowledged that he 

 and his partner during one spring's trapping had killed about TO 

 moose and elk for bait. While it is to be hoped that this practice has 

 been greatly lessened in recent years, it is common knowledge that 

 bear trapping generally is a serious menace to the large game of any 

 region. The moose are evidently increasing in the park at present and 

 are spreading to other valleys where they were- formerly numerous. 

 The great extent of dense forest, containing lakes, marshes, and wil- 

 low thickets, constitutes ideal moose range over a large part of the 

 park, where many thousands of the animals could range at will 

 without interfering with other kinds of game. 



American Elk; Wapiti: Ccrvics canadensis canadensis Erxle- 

 ben. — A few elk are still found along the east slope of the Glacier 

 Park, but they are scarce, shy, and widely scattered in small bunches. 

 Early in the spring of 1917 nine were reported killed by the Indians 

 where they had been forced down by the heavy snows. In July I 

 found fresh tracks in the timber near Two Medicine Lake and a few 

 tracks in Roes Basin north of St. Mary Lake, and learned that a few 

 elk were reported around Red Eagle Lake the previous fall. Donald 

 Stevenson reported eight seen at the salt lick near Upper St. Mary 

 Lake in 1912, and a few on Swiftcurrent Creek in 1915. In August. 

 1917, I found old winter elk sign on the warm slopes of Belly River 

 valley near the park boundary, where a few elk had lived during 

 one of the preceding winters. In all, there may be 50 elk along the 

 east slope of the park, and it is doubtful if they are holding their own 

 against the severe climate and the necessity of coming down on to the 

 Indian Reservation in winter, where they are unprotected. On the 



