ELK, WAPITI. 



Cervus Canadensis. — Erxleben. 



<' '' I ^HE antlered monarch of the waste." How applicable is 

 _|_ this term to the stately elk, the giant deer of the forest, 

 the plains and the mountains of North America. Standing as tall 

 as a horse, bearing a superb pair of antlers worthy to adorn any 

 baronial hall, with senses than which no keener can be found 

 among all our varied examples of animal life, and a form faultless 

 in the grace and symmetry of its outlines, the Wapiti justly holds 

 the first place among the game animals of our continent. 



It is in the sportsman's breast that the Elk arouses the greatest 

 enthusiasm, yet his grace and beauty might well attract the pencil 

 of the artist, and his great size and wonderful powers of endurance 

 furnish an exhaustless theme for the pen of poet and romancer. 

 No more striking and beautiful sight can be imagined than a band 

 of these animals just started from their feeding ground. Their 

 swift and swinging trot, as they move off over the rough ground or 

 through the tangled forest, is the poetry of motion. Each grand 

 bull carries his head well up and his polished antlers stretch far 

 back over his flanks. The more dainty and light-footed cows 

 press to the front and with their calves first disappear, and in a 

 moment more the last of the bulls vanishes over the top of the 

 neighboring bluff. Then perhaps, oh reader, you advance from 

 your place of concealment, and with feelings of indescribable pride 

 and exultation stand over your first bull elk. 



In former times the Wapiti seems to have been distributed 

 throughout the whole of North America, south of the Great Lakes 

 on the eastern side of the continent, but extending northv/ard as 

 far as the fifty-sixth or fifty-seventh parallel of latitude on the 

 plains and in the mountains. It was abundant in California, and 

 nowhere more so than on the banks of the San Joaquin, about 

 which stream all old Californians are so enthusiastic. In Northern 



