144 Deer and Antelope of North America 



The wapiti's natural gaits are a walk and a trot. 

 It walks very fast indeed, especially if travelling to 

 reach some given point. More than once I have 

 sought to overtake a travelling bull, and have 

 found myself absolutely unable to do so, although 

 it never broke its walk. Of course, if I had not 

 been obliged to pay any heed to cover or wind, I 

 could have run up on it; but the necessity for 

 paying heed to both handicapped me so that I 

 was actually unable to come up to the quarry as 

 it swung steadily on through woodland and open, 

 over rough ground and smooth. Wapiti have a 

 slashing trot, which they can keep up for an in- 

 definite time and over any kind of country. Only 

 a good pony can overtake them when they have 

 had any start and have got settled into this trot. 

 If much startled they break into a gallop — the 

 young being always much more willing to gallop 

 than the old. Their gallop is very fast, especially 

 down hill. But they speedily tire under it. A 

 yearling or a two-year-old can keep it up for a 

 couple of miles. A heavy old bull will be done 

 out after a few hundred yards. I once saw a band 

 of wapiti frightened into a gallop down a steep 

 incline where there were also a couple of mule- 

 deer. I had not supposed that wapiti ran as fast 

 as mule-deer, but this particular band actually 

 passed the deer, though the latter were evidently 

 doing their best ; the wapiti were well ahead when, 



