188 CKUISINGS IN THE CASCADES 



his way. The rutting season over, he has no further 

 use for his antlers until the next autumn, and they 

 drop off. Thus the process is repeated, year after 

 year, as regularly as the leaves grow and fall from 

 the' trees. But it seems a strange provision of nature 

 that should load an animal with sixty to seventy - 

 five pounds of horns, for half the year, when 

 weapons of one-quarter the size and weight would 

 be equally effective if all were armed alike. 



I have in my collection the head of a bull elk, 

 killed in the Shoshone Mountains, in Northern 

 Wyoming, the antlers of which measure as follows: 



Length of main beam, 4 feet 8 inches; length of 

 brow tine, Ifoot 6,J inches; length of bes tine, 1 foot 

 8J inches; length of royal tine, 1 foot 7 inches; 

 length of surroyal, 1 foot 8 inches: circumference 

 around burr, 1 footSJ inches; circumference around 

 beam above burr, 12 inches; circumference of brow 

 tine at base, 7 inches; spread of main beams at tips, 

 4 feet 9 inches. They are one of the largest and finest 

 pairs of antlers of which I have any knowledge. 

 The animal when killed would have weighed nearly 

 a thousand pounds. 



The elk is strictly gregarious, and in winter time, 

 especially, the animals gather into large bands, and 

 a few years ago herds of from five hundred to a 

 thousand were not uncommon. Now, however, their 

 numbers have been so far reduced by the ravages 

 of " skin hunters " and others that one will rarely 

 find more than twenty-five or thirty in a band. 



In the fall of 1879, a party of three men were 

 sight-seeing and hunting in the Yellowstone Na- 

 tional Park, and having prolonged their stay until 



