The Wapiti or Round- homed Elk 147 



were some places where the shift was simply 

 from the high mountains down to their foot-hills. 

 In other places great herds travelled a couple of 

 hundred miles, so that localities absolutely barren 

 one month would be swarming with wapiti the 

 next. In some places the shift took place as 

 early as the month of August ; in others not 

 until after the rut, in October or even Novem- 

 ber; and in some places the rut took place 

 during the migration. 



No chase is more fascinating than that of the 

 wapiti. In the old days, when the mighty antlered 

 beasts were found upon the open plains, they 

 could be followed upon horseback, with or with- 

 out hounds. Nowadays, when they dwell in the 

 mountains, they are to be killed only by the 

 rifle-bearing still-hunter. Needless butchery of 

 any kind of animal is repulsive, but in the case 

 of the wapiti it is little short of criminal. He is 

 the grandest of the deer kind throughout the 

 world, and he has already vanished from most of 

 the places where he once dwelt in his pride. 

 Every true sportsman should feel it incumbent 

 upon him to do all in his power to preserve so 

 noble a beast of the chase from extinction. No 

 harm whatever comes to the species from killing 

 a certain number of bulls ; but an excessive num- 

 ber should never be killed, and no cow or calf 

 should under any circumstances be touched. 



