American Elk 



47 



which the hatter animal has been long subjected in its best-known haunts. 

 And it is not improbable that Asiatic elk antlers may be as large as 

 American examples. 



The two largest pairs of antlers of American elk entered in Mr. 

 Rowland Ward's Records of Big Game respectively measure 447, and 44 

 inches in length to the extremity of the longest tine, the former of them 

 having a basal girth of i o^, a tip-to-tip interval of 49^, and a maximum 

 width of 66 inches. 



Fig. I I. — A Scene in Mr. Dall dc Wecse's Camp, showing Alaskan Elk, Bear, and Bighorn Sheep 

 killed on Kussilioflin River, Alaska, in 1897. 



Inclusive of the Alaskan race, the elk in America formerly inhabited 

 the west coast region from the shores of the Arctic Ocean nearly as tar 

 south as the Columbia River ; while further east its northern limit was 

 formed approximately by 65" N. lat., whence it extended through Canada 

 into Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the northern forest-clad 

 districts of New York State. 



Constant persecution, accompanied by inadequate or no protection, has 

 however done its usual fital work, and this extensive range became sadly 

 reduced during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. In the 



