f 



THIRTY TEAKS A HUNTER. 



This shrub must not be confounded with the one 

 sometimes called moose-wood, which has a very 

 tough, fibrous bark, and the proper name of which 

 is leather-wood. When the elk-wood is scarce, they 



I eat the twigs of basswood, elm, hickory or white ash. 



PSi severe storms they seek sheltered places, under 

 rocks, the points of hills, or in hemlock thickets. A 

 favorite resort for them is in places where old trees 

 have been blown down, and a thick second growth 

 of underbrush has sprung up. In the spring they 

 scatter through the woods, alone or in pairs, seeking 

 the heads of small streams, and other localities 

 where the^oung feed first begins to start. Before 



x the axe -of 'the settler had leveled the forests in 

 which they ranged, their most frequented resorts in 

 the interior of Pennsylvania were between the Alle- 

 gany and the Susquehannah, and on the west side 

 ot the north braneh of the Susquehannah, from the 

 Loyaisock Creek to the New York state line. I 

 have found them most numerous in the western part 

 of Lycoming and the eastern part of McKean coun- 

 ties, on the head waters of the Susquehannah and 

 the Allegany. 



The elk is tne lord of the forest in which he 

 ranges^ no animal inhabiting the same localities be- 

 ing able to conquer him. Terrific combats some- 



< times ensue among themselves, and I have often 

 found them dead in the woods, with deep wounds 

 mad e hxr thp antlers of their antagonists. 



