WAPITI-RUNNING ON THE PLAINS 



The first time I ever saw the head of a wapiti 

 {Cervus canadensis) was at Chicago. I happened 

 to be talking one day with General Sheridan, when 

 a magnificent specimen arrived from one of the 

 frontier forts as a present from the officer in com- 

 mand there. I had heard of these animals, but had 

 looked upon them as mythological beasts. I had 

 been so much disappointed in America in my search 

 for large game, had heard so many rumours which 

 turned out to be without the smallest foundation 

 in fact, and had listened to so many stories of 

 abundance of game which proved to be entirely 

 illusory — the animals existing only in the vivid 

 imagination of the story-tellers — that I had begun 

 seriously to doubt whether any wapiti existed on 

 the continent. The sight, however, of the pair of 

 horns reassured me considerably, for obviously 

 where one wapiti stag was to be found there was 

 a reasonable chance of killing others, and my en- 

 thusiasm rising to fever heat on the closer inspection 



of the antlers, nothing would satisfy me but I must 



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