752 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



during the present war. This much is certain, however : 

 the Czar of Russia is no more, and meat has been 

 greatly in demand in all parts of that country ; so one 

 need not be surprised to hear that not a single speci- 

 men of the aurochs or European buffalo are now to be 

 found anywhere in the world. 



Thus it has gone, too, with many other large mam- 

 mals, and those of the United States form no excep- 

 tion. Our antelope have been well-nigh exterminated, 

 and a dozen other big species are following fast. Very 

 well do I remember how plentiful the wapiti or Ameri- 

 can elk were in the mountainous regions of Wyoming 

 during the latter part of the 70's. On one occasion, 



Several years later, I accompanied Lieut. Lewis 

 Merriam, of the 4th U. S. Infantry, on a hunting trip 

 in the Medicine Bow Range of Wyoming, our Post 

 being at Fort Fetterman, where I was stationed at the 

 time as surgeon. It was a bitterly cold winter, the 

 mercurial thermometer having registered over sixty 

 below zero on one or more occasions. Merriam and 

 I were companions on many hunts ; he is now living in 

 Washington, being a retired major in the Army, and he 

 will remember some of the incidents recorded below. 



On the occasion, I refer to, there had been a heavy 

 snow, and the first night we made camp in the Range 

 the mercury fell to 40 below zero. We had with us 



OUR ELK IS ONE OK THE GRANDEST REPRESENTATIVES OF THE AMERICAN Ccr-Adae OR DEER FAMILY; IT IS Cervus cana- 

 densis OF SCIENCE 



F '*; 8 r7 T / lcse m agni(icent animals at one time ranged over the entire United States, sometimes in herds of several thousands. In the Jack- 

 ion Hole region, \Vyoming, the Federal Government is making an attempt to save a few of them, with varying success. (Photograph by the 

 author, using Clark s group in the U. S. National Museum as a model) 



when serving as Post Surgeon at Fort Laramie, we 

 had a very hard winter, and, during a heavy snow 

 storm, a big bull elk trotted across the parade ground, 

 between the barracks and officers' quarters. No one 

 got a shot at him, and he was soon out of sight. The 

 winter before, during another storm, a big bull buffalo 

 entered half-way through the door of the officers' club 

 room ; it was snowing on that occasion, too, and the 

 animal made good his escape. 



Sergeant Mitchell and another enlisted man. To take 

 back such game as we shot, we had an army wagon 

 and a team of mules. At an early hour, after the first 

 night's camp, Merriam and I, each with a fine mount, 

 started out for the foot-hills of the first range of moun- 

 tains, near which we had pitched our "A" tent. It was 

 a superb day, and distinctly of a kind peculiar to the 

 mountainous regions of the Middle West. It was not 

 likely that any one else had been in that part of the 



