NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 267 



spicuous because of their large size, while the excellence of their 

 meat made them an object of pursuit by the pioneers. Add to 

 these points their gregarious habits, the dangers to which 

 they were exposed through severe winters, prairie fires, and 

 diseases, and it becomes obvious that they would be among 

 the first to go in the face of these perils. Shortly after the 

 Civil War, with the increase of settlers over the prairie country, 

 elk became reduced in numbers on the Plains until they were 

 left only in the more rugged country in the foothills of the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



This race of elk reached its southern limits in the mountains 

 of extreme northern New Mexico. In the San Juan Mountains 

 they were reported as abundant by Pike in 1807 and by Cope 

 as not uncommon in 1874, but in succeeding years these num- 

 bers seem to have quickly dwindled, although they were still 

 to be found in 1892. In September, 1909, forest rangers 

 reported two elk in these mountains. Bailey (1931), who re- 

 cords these facts, was unable to learn of elk in the Jemez 

 Mountains when he was there in 1906. Nelson, who in 1883 

 was staying near the head of Pecos River, had a few reports 

 of elk in the nearby mountains at that time, but the last 

 record that Bailey could obtain was of one killed in 1902. 

 While probably the native stock was by then wiped out, 

 several attempts at restocking have since taken place, by im- 

 porting animals from Colorado and Wyoming, as in 1911, 

 when small numbers were "planted" in Potato Canyon, 

 Cimarron Canyon, Gallinas Canyon, and later in San Miguel 

 County. These introductions, in part under fence, were re- 

 ported as doing well and increasing slowly. With the setting 

 aside of several game reserves, it seems likely that a stock may 

 eventually be built up. 



In Colorado, elk were early exterminated in the eastern parts 

 and in 1871 were already rare even in Park County in the 

 eastern hills. Cary, writing in 1911, says that they were then 

 exterminated over much of their former range in Colorado, 

 and "the few bands which remain in the wildest parts of the 

 western plateaus and mountains are small and widely scat- 

 tered . . . Estimates in 1898 placed the number of elk 

 in Colorado at 7,000; in 1902 at 3,000. In 1909 their numbers 

 were reduced to considerably less, and were divided about 

 equally between northern and southern Colorado . . . 



