260 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



ately above it. Thus, in spite of Merriam's doubts, it is clear 

 that the eastern wapiti formerly occurred in the northwestern 

 part of the State and probably became extinct a century or 

 more ago. 



For Pennsylvania the record is much fuller, and Rhoads 

 (1903) in particular has gathered what evidence he could find 

 of their former presence. Early accounts tell of their abundance 

 in that State, especially in the vicinity of salt licks, to which 

 they had, with other large mammals, worn broad trails. Peter 

 Kalm related how in the winter of 1705 great numbers came off 

 the mountains because of the deep snows and were killed. 

 Barton in 1806, a century later, implies the reduction of the 

 herds: "In the memory of many persons now living, the droves 

 of elks which used to frequent the salines near the river Sus- 

 quehanna in Pennsylvania were so great that for 5 or 6 miles 

 leading to the licks the paths of these animals were as large as 

 many of the great public roads of our country. Eighty elks 

 have sometimes been seen in one herd upon their march to the 

 salines." In the vicinity of these congregating places they 

 were apparently much hunted and killed, which may in part 

 explain their early extermination. Rhoads says : " In the north- 

 eastern Alleghenies of Sullivarr, Luzerne and Wyoming counties 

 they seem to have totally disappeared in the second decade of 

 the 19th century, although a few remained in a favorite haunt 

 called 'Elk Forest' in the Pocono range of Wayne Co. until 

 exterminated between 1830 and '40. In Tioga, Lycoming and 

 Potter counties they haunted the headwaters of Pine Creek 

 and the Black Forest until 1862, when the last was killed. In 

 Somerset and Bedford counties, where the mountain glades 

 and saline or sulphur springs were sought out by numerous 

 bands of wapiti and buffalo in early colonial times, their ex- 

 termination must have been of very early date . . . Even 

 more obscure is the evidence of their former occurrence in the 

 southwestern counties of Pennsylvania, and in the parts of 

 New Jersey pertaining to the valley of the upper Delaware. " 



Stragglers, however, driven from the Pennsylvania moun- 

 tains are believed occasionally to have been taken in northern 

 New Jersey in former days. A writer in 1835 (R. C. Taylor, 

 in London's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. 8, p. 536) says that at that 

 time elk were almost extinct in Pennsylvania; nevertheless a 

 few continued for a number of years and were shot by hunters 



