156 GAME. 



in reference to buffalo, few sportsmen can resist the 

 desire to kill when the opportunity presents itself. Be- 

 sides this, the Pacific railroads having opened the eastern 

 markets to western game, the country in their vicinity is 

 overrun each winter by pot-hunters, who kill as many as 

 possible for shipment. 



All these cases combined rapidly diminish the number 

 of elk. They do not long survive the settlement or 

 occupation of a country, or the constant and murderous 

 attacks made upon them by the pot-hunters. 



One must go, at the present time, to the wild and 

 unknown parts of the country to find elk in any great 

 abundance. 



Elk vary in their habits with the locality and season 

 of the year. The following is descriptive of the habits 

 of those frequenting the Laramie Plains. In May, June, 

 and July, it is rare to find two together. The female is 

 secluded in some close thicket or rocky fastness, pre- 

 paring for, or taking care of, her calf. The buck is also 

 in trouble. The immense antlers which he so proudly 

 tossed last autumn dropped off in February, and he 

 is undergoing the tedious, painful, and wearing process 

 of growing another pair. He is weak, languid, and 

 rather thin in flesh, for, although food is good and 

 abundant, most of the blood he makes goes to the build- 

 ing-up of his magnificent horns. These start from the 

 same base from which the old ones fell, and, at starting, 

 are about the size or a little larger than the old base. 

 The horn starts like an asparagus shoot, and from the 

 commencement grows full size in diameter. The upper 

 surface of the old base gets soft and bulbous. A thin 

 skin covered with short downy hair stretches over this 

 bulb, which contains apparently only thick black blood, 

 and grows at the rate of nearly half an inch in twenty- 

 four hours. Soon after fairly getting started, a deposit 

 commences at the centre of what is to be the future horn, 

 a bony substance which gradually increases in size and 



