90 PEAIEIE AND FOREST. 



become full heads; however, with further years the horns 

 continue to spread and increase in weight, the very old 

 males exhibiting at the top fork a very obvious palmation. 

 Mr. Hays, a New York animal artist of great repute, 

 showed me a pair of Wapitti antlers which he had picked 

 up in a valley of the Rocky Mountains ; they were larger 

 than any I had previously seen, although I have killed a 

 very great number of specimens. If memory serves me 

 correctly, they possessed fifteen points, and weighed fifty- 

 two pounds. What a splendid stag their owner must have 

 been ! And the trouble and expense of a voyage across 

 the Atlantic, with the additional fatigue of the land 

 journey to the hunting-grounds of the red-men, would not 

 be thrown away if the sportsman was certain to be rewarded 

 by the capture of such a quarry. 



