34 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 
In the annual report of the provincial game warden of 
British Columbia for 1918, a small herd of wapiti is re- 
ported pasturing around the south end of the Elk Valley 
Game Reserve (see p. 239) and a larger herd is known to 
be in the vicinity of the headwaters of the White River. 
Efforts to secure a short open season have proved unsuc- 
cessful, as the Game Conservation Board considers that the 
absence of any reports of an increase in the number of wapiti 
does not warrant such action.* The wapiti liberated at 
Bridge River, near Lillooet, are reported as doing well, 
and two claims for damages done by these animals to the 
crops of Indians in that district have been paid. 
In the Dominion Parks of western Canada successful 
efforts are being made to increase the herds of wapiti that 
are protected in those areas. The following figures of their 
numbers in the year 1919 have been furnished me by the 
Commissioner of Dominion Parks, Mr. J. B. Harkin: 
Buffalo Park, Wainwright, Alta. ><: c/e4\c 5s oua.n ase eee 106 
Roeky Mountains’ Park, Alta... 544 03 Jonas Vee eee 27 
te Yelena Pants Alte i Veta ile ra ey tas eed (estimated) 106 
The superintendent of the Waterton Lakes Park reported 
that in 1915 a herd of wapiti was to be seen almost any time 
near Turret Mountain. ‘‘This herd has increased greatly,” 
he states, ‘‘and is now estimated at about 200 head.” 
In 1916 a herd of about fifty-eight animals was secured 
from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, by the Commissioner of 
Dominion Parks, with the intention of placing them in the 
large wapiti enclosure in Waterton Lakes Park. The wapiti 
previously enclosed in that park will be liberated, and by 
this means a beginning will be made in stocking the enor- 
mous area of the park over which this animal formerly 
ranged, and into the western region of which the increase 
*It is to be greatly regretted that in 1919 the Game Conservation Board 
permitted the restricted hunting of wapiti. We feel that these animals are 
by no means sufficiently abundant as yet to permit hunting. 
