82 PKAIEIE AND FOEEST. 



blood-thirsty robber dares to approach a member of this 

 species, unless he be disabled by wounds or effete from 

 age. I do not think, from the information I have been 

 able to obtain, from searching old authorities who have 

 written on the fauna of North America, that the range of 

 the wapitti ever extended eastward to the Atlantic sea- 

 board, but that their habitat commenced with the prairie 

 country, say Illinois or Indiana. However, these states 

 have long ceased to know them, for, like the other large 

 game, they have rapidly retired before the tide of 

 immigration. The upper waters of the Missouri, the plains 

 around the fork of the North and South Saskatchawan are 

 where at the present day this mammoth stag will be found 

 most abundant. The adventurer who would follow them 

 to these fastnesses must be a brave, determined person, for 

 it is the centre of the hunting grounds of some of the most 

 warlike and treacherous of all the Indian tribes ; and of 

 late years so many acts of retaliation yes, and treachery 

 have been practised by the white man upon the aborigines, 

 that the aborigines are too apt to regard all pale-faces as 

 their natural-born enemies. Thus, to shoot wapitti will 

 probably entail shooting savages ; for if you are not pre- 

 pared to do so in self-defence it is highly improbable that 

 you will return to the land of your nativity to relate your 

 knowledge of their habits, or the success you have had in 

 their pursuit. 



The stag of Canada, for by this name the wapitti is 

 scientifically known, is essentially gregarious, and some- 

 times herds amount to hundreds ; but as a rule they will 

 be found assembled in coteries of a dozen or more, the 



