ON THE PRAIRIE 159 



tion at no distant date. Already its range 

 has shrunk to far less than one half its 

 former size. Originally it was found as far 

 as the Atlantic sea-board; I have myself 

 known of several sets of antlers preserved 

 in the house of a Long Island gentleman, 

 whose ancestors had killed the bearers 

 shortly after the first settlement of New 

 York. Even so late as the first years of 

 this century elk were found in many moun- 

 tainous and densely wooded places east of 

 the Mississippi ; in New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and all 

 of what were then the Northwestern States 

 ami Territories. The last individual of the 

 race was killed in the Adirondacks in 1834; 

 m Pennsylvania not till nearly thirty years 

 later ; while a very few are still to be found 

 in Northrn Michigan. Elsewhere they 

 must now be sought far to the west of the 

 Mississippi ; and even there they are almost 

 gone from the great plains, and are only 

 numerous in the deep mountain forests. 

 Wherever it exists the skin hunters and 



