28 CONSERVATION OF CANADIAN WILD LIFE 



the United States is 70,000,* of which nearly half are to be 

 found in Wyoming, mainly in and about Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park. 



Distribution and Abundance in Canada. — Its original 

 range is shown in the accompanying map prepared by 

 Ernest Thompson Seton; this also shows the present range. 

 Formerly the wapiti occupied the greater portion of the cen- 

 tral region of the continent. They ranged from Quebec, 

 Massachusetts, and North CaroUna in the east, to the 

 Pacific coast of California on the west, and from the Peace 

 River region and northern Manitoba in the north, to Mexico 

 in the south. Now they are restricted to certain regions in 

 the Prairie Provinces of Canada, as will be described later, 

 to British Columbia, and to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, 

 and the Pacific Coast States. 



When Jacques Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence to 

 Hochelaga in 1535, ''stags" were found in large numbers. 

 The region of Kingston, Ont., is marked on Champlain's 

 map of 1632 as a region where these animals occurred in 

 abundance. Father Lemoine, sailing on the St. Lawrence 

 in 1653-4, found large numbers of what were undoubtedly 

 wapiti in that region. To-day there are no "wild" wapiti 

 east of Manitoba. 



In Manitoba they must have been very abundant in the 

 early days, judging from the large numbers of antlers that 

 are to be found, particularly in the southern portion of the 

 province; but wapiti were exterminated from that region 

 of the province many years ago. To-day they are to be 

 found fairly abundantly in the Riding Mountains, and in 

 the territory lying between Lakes Winnipeg and Manitoba. 

 The increased protection afforded by the Riding Mountains 

 Game Reserve is undoubtedly helping them to increase in 

 numbers, and, in spite of much illegal killing that has taken 



* "Our National Elk Herds," by H. S. Graves and E. W. Nelson. U. S. 

 Dept. Agriculture, Circular No. 51, 1919. 



