74 Sport and Life. 



treble its real height, and making of the 1000 pair of antlers 

 10,000 ! * 



As probably the majority of these trophies or sacred offerings 

 were picked heads, the finest of their kind, it is regrettable that 

 this traveller did not take the trouble ta ascertain the dimensions 

 -of the largest, for it would have thrown light upon a vexed question, 

 i.e., whether wapiti antlers have experienced the same deterioration 

 within the last fifty or 100 years, which, for instance, is noticeable 

 when we compare trophies of European red deer, say, of the 

 seventeenth century with those obtainable to-day. To judge 

 by the measurements of the finest head obtained by his party a 

 twenty pointer with a length of antlers of 4ft. lin. in a straight line, 

 and a weight of 261b. such deterioration has not occurred, for 

 many better heads have been obtained in our days. Another 

 fact would seem to corroborate this assumption, namely, that 

 among the old heads dug out of bogs and quicksands there 

 are, as already mentioned, few of superior proportions to those of 

 to-day. 



Another matter of interest in connection with wapiti heads is 

 the following. That the normal number of tines on wapiti heads 

 is twelve, and that fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty-point 

 heads are very much rarer than among red deer, is a well known 

 fact. Among the many thousands of wapiti antlers I have 

 seen there were not half a dozen of more than eighteen tines, 

 and among the 400 or 500 stags I have killed myself or had a 

 share in killing, almost all of which were picked animals, 

 there were only two heads of eighteen and not one of more 

 points. 



* The Scientific American tells us that at Mammoth Hot Springs, in the 

 Yellowstone Park, there is a fence made of wapiti horns. It encloses the greater 

 part of the grounds of photographer F. Jay Haynes' studio. The fence is 

 composed of over 303 selected " elk " horns. All of them have twelve points, and 

 a great many have fourteen points. They were shed in March, 1895, and were 

 gathered in June of the same year by Mr. Haynes and three of his men, within 

 a radius of ten miles of Mammoth Hot Springs, and within four days' time. 

 There were about 2500 wapiti in the park then. 



