452 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



Atkinson (1858, p. 373) speaks of securing "many a stag" in the 

 Tannu-Ola Mountains in the 1850's. 



Severtzoff (1876, p. 383) says this Wapiti is met with only 

 occasionally in the Karkalinsk and Bayan-aulsk mountains of Semi- 

 palatinsk. He adds (p. 384) that in several places stags are kept 

 and bred for the sake of their horns, especially in the Altai 

 Zabaikalje. "This stag inhabits in Siberia the country about the 

 upper part of the Jennissey, as far as Crasnojarsk, as well as the 

 wooded hills of the Sajan and Zabaikalje; to the south it probably 

 goes as far as the desert of Gobi" (p. 385) . 



Elwes (1899, pp. 29-31) gives the following account: 



This species has now become scarce in a wild state in the Russian Altai 

 owing to the number which are shot by the native and Russian hunters, who 

 sell their horns, if killed while "in the velvet," at high prices to the Chinese. 

 They are, however, kept alive in parks at several places in the Altai for the 

 sake of their horns, which are annually cut for sale, and which sometimes 

 realize as much as 100 roubles a pair at the rate of 10 roubles a pound. 



The killing of these deer has now been prohibited by the Government in 

 the Altai district, and we never saw the animal in a wild state, and though 

 we picked up horns, shed many years previously, in the high treeless moun- 

 tains south of the Tchuja valley . . . , I believe that they are now very 

 scarce except in the heavily wooded country east of the Katuna. In the 

 Yenisei and Abakan valleys this deer, or a nearly allied form of it, is much more 

 numerous. 



Lydekker writes (18986, p. 108) : "During the winter months 

 large numbers are captured by the natives, who drive them into 

 nets." 



Carruthers (1913, pp. 161-162) contributes the following on the 

 economic exploitation : 



Wapiti come so close to the village [of Sabie, in Tannu-Tuva] that it 

 is an easy and profitable undertaking to capture the younger animals alive. 

 These the colonists keep in enclosures (as is the custom in all localities along 

 the Russo-Chinese frontier where wapiti exist) , and take a yearly tribute from 

 the stags in the shape of their soft horns when in velvet. The nearness of the 

 Chinese markets, to which these horns find their way, as well as the exis- 

 tence of many wild wapiti, has caused Sabie to be a flourishing settlement. 

 The inhabitants told us that, during the winter, they employed the Urian- 

 khai, owing to their exceptional skill in forest-lore, to catch the wapiti. The 

 method they employed was to dig pitfalls and to attract the stags to the 

 locality by distributing salt in the neighbourhood. 



Wallace writes (1915, p. 208) : 



Owing chiefly to the persecution of native hunters, who are encouraged by 

 the value put on the immature horns by the Chinese, the fine deer of 

 Central Asia are rapidly being exterminated. This is the real reason why good 

 heads are so difficult to procure and why the pursuit of large deer in 

 districts under Chinese influence is attended by so much disappointment. 

 The introduction of modern rifles, the gradually increasing nomadic popu- 

 lation, . . . tend to drive the deer into the most remote and inaccessible 



