THE WAPITI 269 



ground and smooth. Wapiti have a slashing trot, which 

 they can keep up for an indefinite time and over any 

 kind of country. Only a good pony can overtake them 

 when they have had any start and have settled into this 

 trot. If much startled they break into a gallop the 

 young being always much more willing to gallop than 

 the old. Their gallop is very fast, especially downhill. 

 But they speedily tire under it. A yearling or a two-year- 

 old can keep it up for a couple of miles. A heavy old 

 bull will be done out after a few hundred yards. I once 

 saw a band of wapiti frightened into a gallop down a 

 steep incline where there were also a couple of mule- 

 deer. I had not supposed that wapiti ran as fast as mule- 

 deer, but this particular band actually passed the deer, 

 though the latter were evidently doing their best; the 

 wapiti were well ahead, when, after thundering down the 

 steep, broken incline, they all disappeared into a belt 

 of woodland. In spite of their size, wapiti climb well 

 and go sure-footedly over difficult and dangerous ground. 

 They have a habit of coming out to the edges of cliffs, 

 or on mountain spurs, and looking over the landscape 

 beneath, almost as though they enjoyed the scenery. 

 What their real object is on such occasions I do not 

 know. 



The nose of the wapiti is very keen. Its sight is much 

 inferior to that of the antelope, but about as good as a 

 deer's. Its hearing is also much like that of a deer. 

 When in country where it is little molested, it feeds and 

 moves about freely by day, lying down to rest at inter- 

 vals, like cattle. Wapiti offer especial attractions to the 



