NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 277 



Vernon Bailey (1936), who reports that there are still con- 

 siderable numbers of them in the coast ranges to which they 

 are confined, from the Columbia River to the California border. 

 Originally they inhabited the western slope of the Cascade 

 Mountains and thence to the coast over all western Oregon. 

 In 1841 Wilkes found them plentiful in the Willamette Valley, 

 and Peale reported them from the mountains south of the 

 Columbia River. Suckley and Gibbs about 1854 met with them 

 abundantly in the mountains west of Astoria. "Later as the 

 country was settled, elk were reported from almost every 

 valley and mountain range of western Oregon, including the 

 west slope of the Cascade Mountains, but there seems to be 

 no record from the east [drier] slope of the range. In recent 

 years, under rigid protection, apparently they have been 

 holding their own, while in some localities actually increasing. 

 The continual spread of settlement, though, is restricting their 

 range, and the greater number of hunters each year makes it 

 more difficult to prevent poaching in out-of-the-way places" 

 (Bailey, 1936). In 1926 there was an estimated total popu- 

 lation of 436 elk on the national forests of western Oregon, a 

 figure that, says Bailey, covers the greater part of the Roose- 

 velt's elk in the State. This is a slight increase (of about 40) 

 over the estimate for 1933, but less than those for 1930 and 

 1931. It may be pointed out that the 17,000 elk estimated in 

 1939 as inhabiting the State of Oregon (Federal census), are 

 doubtless mostly the Rocky Mountain elk, native and im- 

 ported, in eastern parts of the State. 



Still farther south this elk formerly occurred in abundance 

 all the way to San Francisco Bay in the humid coast belt of 

 northwestern California and eastward to the nearer inner 

 coast ranges and to Mount Shasta. Of recent years, however, 

 its numbers have dwindled, until by 1933, according to Grinnell 

 (1933), it was to be found only in Del Norte and northern 

 Humboldt Counties, while the total population was believed 

 not to exceed 400 head. Its vertical range extended originally 

 from sea level up to at least 7,000 feet, as formerly in the Scott 

 Mountains, Trinity County. Its usual habitat was in and 

 about openings in forest. 



While the population of this elk is small, with a few hundred 

 in Vancouver Island, and in each of these three northwestern 

 States, nevertheless with the protection now given it there 



