142 THE GREAT NORTH-WEST 



a pack of wolves, and that they will even make the bear 

 fly. The calves, are, however, often destroyed by wolves, 

 for while part of the pack are engaging the mother's 

 attention, the rest pull down the defenceless little 

 creature. But even then the mother sometimes stands 

 over the carcass and defends it for many hours. 



This deer, which should be called the elk, and the 

 wipiti, which is invariably in North America miscalled 

 the elk, were found by me in every part of British 

 America that I visited, with the exception of a few 

 limited areas where the former animal had been exter- 

 minated or driven away. I believe that both animals 

 always avoided the barren, treeless margin around 

 Hudson Bay, but as soon as the forest line was reached 

 they were found. When America was discovered, and 

 for two centuries afterwards, the moose was found in 

 every known part of the Northern division (Mexico to 

 the Arctic regions), which was well wooded. This 

 assertion, first made in a former work, has greatly pro- 

 voked certain American naturalists, who have communi- 

 cated with me, denying the fact. 



It is not my intention to provoke controversy, and I 

 do not wish to offend any man by contradicting him, but 

 I must repeat and endorse my statements regarding this 

 matter. I am thoroughly well acquainted, by actual 

 experience, with the distribution of big game in America 

 between the years 1865-80, and have had a partial 

 experience in more recent dates down to a few years 

 since. With regard to past periods, I ground my state- 

 ments partly on the writings of the first great explorers 

 in North America, partly on the evidences I have myself 

 discovered that moose and wipiti formerly ranged over 

 vast districts, from which they have been wiped away for 

 generations past. How speedily such animals may be 

 exterminated is shown by the circumstance that since 

 the journeys I have been describing the moose, at least, 

 has been quite destroyed in four-fifths of the territory it 



