American Big Game in its Haunts 



different herds within sight. After most careful 

 work and cautious reduction of estimates in eacli 

 case to the minimum the truth would permit, we 

 reckoned three thousand head of elk, all lying or 

 feeding and all in sight at the same time. An esti- 

 mate of some fifteen thousand for the number of 

 elk in these northern bands cannot be far wrong. 

 These bands do not go out of the Park at all, but 

 winter just within its northern boundary. At the 

 time when we saw them, the snow had vanished 

 from the bottom of the valleys and the lower 

 slopes of the mountains, but grew into continuous 

 sheets further up their sides. The elk were for 

 the most part found up on the snow slopes, occa- 

 sionally singly or in small gangs — more often in 

 bands of from fifty to a couple of hundred. The 

 larger bulls were highest up the mountains and 

 generally in small troops by themselves, although 

 occasionally one or two would be found associating 

 with a big herd of cows, yearlings, and two-year- 

 olds. Many of the bulls had shed their antlers; 

 many had not. During the winter the elk had evi- 

 dently done much browsing, but at this time they 

 were grazing almost exclusively, and seemed by 

 preference to seek out the patches of old grass 

 which were last left bare by the retreating snow. 

 The bands moved about very little, and if one were 



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