HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 287 



tliougli it sprung very much under the great strain, nor would 

 he break his neck, a result which I rather desired. After he had 

 become well worried I took a long chain and after a while suc- 

 ceeded in getting it secured around his neck, and fastened it 

 firmly to a post. We then detached the rope from his antler 

 and went inside and commenced operations to cast him. This 

 we at last succeeded in doing and in tying all his feet firmly to- 

 gether, when the operation was readily performed. We then un- 

 did the chain, and then bis feet, and let him up, appreciating that 

 he was too much exhausted and subdued to attack us. Still he 

 retired in good order, and repeatedly looked around savagely, but 

 that was all. By evening, however, he got wicked again and 

 tried to break the fence to reach his keeper. The next day he 

 showed less vicious symptoms, and his wickedness seemed to 

 abate day by day, and by the end of a week all had disappeared 

 and he was ever after as docile as a lamb. This was soon dis- 

 covered by the other buck, which was a year younger and over 

 which he had tyrannized in a lordly way. Long before his antlers 

 dropped off, which occurred in about four weeks, the young fel- 

 low was taking his revenge abundantly, and my sympathies were 

 very little excited, when I saw him chasing the old tyrant 

 through the brush at a rattling pace, whenever he ventured near 

 the harem, the government of which the young buck assumed 

 and exercised with the same despotism which had characterized 

 the rule of the other. This was in September, the height of 

 the rutting season. In a very short time this young buck devel- 

 oped all the wickedness of the first, but as I had no other one 

 old enough for breeding I was obliged to endure him till a year 

 from the first of the next January, when I castrated him also. 

 And now for the last ten years he has been the tamest and most 

 inoffensive Elk in the band. Even the monarch holds him in such 

 contempt that he allows him to run with the does during the 

 rutting season, although if he comes near him he will most 

 likely get an admonition to keep at a respectful distance. 



I have been thus particular in describing the conduct of these 

 two animals, because it serves to convey a more correct idea of 

 their dispositions than I could give by any general explanation. 

 These, however, must be regarded as showing the extreme of 

 wickedness. The one that succeeded to the rule when he was two 

 years old, after the second was castrated, never offered to attack a 

 person, and manifested about the same disposition as the first 

 which I had, of which I have before spoken. He felt his courage 



