ELK 



2014 



ELLESMERE LAND 



The body is yellowish-brown above and nearly 

 black beneath. The chest, neck and legs are 

 dark brown. The males bear antlers which are 

 between four and five feet long. They curve 

 outward and backward, but their branches or 

 tines turn forward. The male appropriates a 

 number of females, and when mating time 

 comes each male fights furiously with his rivals 

 to acquire a herd. Female elks breed when 

 two or three years old, and usually bear but 

 one fawn at a time, although sometimes there 

 are two or three. Unlike most deer, elk do not 

 roam about at night. They feed on grasses, 

 weeds, leaves and twigs during the morning and 

 afternoon. In hot weather they spend hours 

 at a time standing in water, to be rid of flies 

 and mosquitoes. The winter feeding grounds 

 are open hills. 



While the wapiti enjoyed the freedom of the 

 plains, Indians killed great numbers for the 

 flesh, which they ate, and for the skins, which 

 they used to cover their lodges or tepees. In 

 the past, the elk was also hunted for its teeth 

 and antlers. The teeth were used as badges 

 or symbols of membership by the Benevolent 

 and Protective Order of Elks (see ELKS) and 

 the demand was so great that vast herds of 

 animals were sacrificed to obtain them. To 

 prevent complete extermination the elk is 

 being carefully protected by law, both in Can- 

 ada and the United States. The Order of 

 Elks now use imitation elk's teeth made of 

 metal or composition. 



The European Elk, the largest of European 

 deer, is similar to the huge, ungainly American 



THE EUROPEAN ELK 



(For illustration of the wapiti, see article 

 DEER. ) 



moose, with jts scoop-shaped antlers. It is an 

 easily-tamed creature and has often been used 

 as a beast of burden, but as such it has been 



largely superseded by the reindeer (which see). 

 The elk is also strongly protected by law in 

 European countries, but it is gradually becom- 

 ing extinct. Some are still seen in forests of 

 Norway, Sweden, Russia and Prussia. 



Another species of deer, now extinct, was 

 known as the Irish elk. It was a large deer, 

 distinguished by its enormous antlers, some- 

 times eleven feet from tip to tip. M.S. 



Related Subject*. The reader is referred to 

 the following articles in these volumes : 

 Deer Reindeer 



Moose Wapiti 



ELK 'HART, IND., a city in Elkhart County 

 in the north-central part of the state, fifteen 

 miles east of South Bend and 101 miles nearly 

 east of Chicago. It is on the Saint Joseph 

 River, at the mouth of the Elkhart River, and 

 on the Chicago, South Bend & Northern In- 

 diana, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & 

 Saint Louis, the New York Central and the 

 Saint Joseph Valley railroads. There is electric 

 interurban service west and south. In 1910 

 the population was 19,282; in 1916 it was 21,858. 

 The area of the city is six square miles. 



Agricultural produce of the surrounding 

 country is shipped from Elkhart. Important 

 industrial establishments of the city include 

 paper mills, automobile works, bridge and iron 

 works and manufactories of musical instru- 

 ments, furniture, carriages, machinery, gas gen- 

 erators, telephone supplies, corsets and rubber. 

 Power for manufacture is supplied by a dam 

 and power house built in 1913 at a cost of 

 $750,000. The city has attractive parks, a fine 

 high school building and a Carnegie Library. 



ELKS, BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER 

 OF, a social and benevolent organization founded 

 in New York in 1868 by members of the theat- 

 rical profession, but now admitting any white 

 male citizen of the United States of good moral 

 character over twenty-one years of age. The 

 order has one grand lodge and sub-lodges with 

 club houses in many of the large cities which 

 serve as hotels to members. An imitation 

 elk's head, with or without the addition of the 

 letters B. P. O. E., has, for humane reasons, 

 replaced the elk's tooth as the official badge 

 (see ELK). The society has a constantly- 

 increasing membership and is said to have 

 made greater charitable disbursements than 

 almost any other fraternal organization in the 

 world. 



ELLESMERE, clz'meer, LAND, an unin- 

 habited region almost entirely covered with 

 glacial ice caps, which lies north of Jones Sound 



