

The Wapiti and his Antlers. 71 



reported to exist in Europe, a iioolb. wapiti would be far less 

 remarkable.* 



To the connoisseur in antlers the Pacific Coast districts of 

 Oregon and Washington present less inducements than those of 

 the interior, say Western Wyoming, and Eastern Idaho, which may 

 be considered to be the best places for really fine antlers. Of 

 course, as these are more or less timberless highlands, where game 

 is far more easily seen and pursued than in the dense coast forest, 

 the remaining bands of wapiti will be killed off in a very few years, 

 and certainly the next generation of sportsmen will be relegated to 

 the less attractive coast regions, where a rainy climate and dense 

 timber not only make sport far less enjoyable and much harder 

 work, but renders the bagging of good heads if not impossible, at 

 least more a matter of chance. 



One of the regions deserving the attention of sportsmen are the 

 Olympic Mountains, in the north-west corner of Washington. 

 They are a rugged mass of irregular and steep ridges, some of 

 which attain a height of over yoooft, rushing streams and small 

 lakes occupying the forest-clad depressions. Fortunately for the 

 sportsman, no paying mines have so far been discovered in the 

 Olympic Mountains; and another circumstance favouring him is 

 the fact that the Government has caused several trails to be opened 

 by which means some fair hunting-grounds can be reached. It is, 

 of course, no longer an untrodden wilderness, but, at the same time, 

 the roughing that has to be undergone to obtain good sport, 

 though perhaps of a mild sort, will be sufficient to give zest to the 

 expedition. f 



* I am alluding to a big Caucasian stag, of which Prince Demidoff has pub- 

 lished an interesting account in the " Encyclopaedia of Sport," Vol. I., p. 308. 

 He tells me that this stag as he dropped must have weighed even more, for in 

 order to weigh the carcass it had to be cut into pieces and carried down, and the 

 weight thus ascertained (5351. -|lb.) made no allowance for loss of blood. It seems 

 almost incredible that red deer of this weight should exist in Europe to-day. 



f For further details I think the visitor could not do better than inquire 

 of Mr. W. F. Sheard, 910, A-street, Tacoma (Wash.), who, though I can only 

 speak from hearsay, as I do not know him personally, seems willing to assist 

 sportsmen visitors so far as he can. 



