THE GAME ANIMALS OF CANADA 27 
member of the deer family in North America. But the 
histories of all the largest and most interesting members of 
our wild life are depressingly similar, and all have suffered 
the inevitable result of territorial development and man’s 
improvident greed for slaughter. Thousands of these splen- 
Fie. I—ELK-HORN PYRAMID 
Such pyramids used to be found in the great plains, indicating the former 
- abundance of the Wapiti 
(After Baird) 
did animals have been slain merely for the sake of their 
teeth. No condemnation of this iniquitous practice can 
be too strong, and every possible means should be taken to 
put an end to the practice of dealing in and wearing elk 
“‘tusks,”’ in view of the barbarous significance of such use- 
less emblems. The result is that to-day the abundance of 
the wapiti is but one-twentieth of what it was formerly, 
according to Hornaday. The latest estimate of their num- 
bers over the whole of their present restricted range in 
