2 5 6 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



Hole though, of course, here and there 

 within the limits of the park a few elk 

 may spend both winter and summer in 

 an unusually favorable location. It was 

 the members of the northern band that 

 I met. During the winter time they 

 are very stationary, each band staying 

 within a very few miles of the same 

 place, and from their size and the open 

 nature of their habitat it is almost as 

 easy to count them as if they were cattle. 

 From a spur of Bison Peak, one day, 

 Major Pitcher, the guide Elwood Ho- 

 fer, John Burroughs, and I spent about 

 four hours with the glasses counting 

 and estimating the different herds within 

 sight. After most careful work and 

 cautious reduction of estimates in each 

 case to the minimum the truth would 

 permit, we reckoned three thousand head 

 of elk, all lying or feeding and all in 

 sight at the same time. An estimate of 

 some fifteen thousand for the number of 

 elk in these northern bands can not be 

 far wrong. These bands do not go out 



of the park at all, but winter just within 

 its northern boundary. At the time 

 when we saw them the snow had van- 

 ished from the bottom of the valleys 

 and the lower slopes of the mountains, 

 but grew into continuous sheets further 

 up their sides. The elk were for the 

 most part found up on the snow slopes, 

 occasionally singly or in small gangs; 

 more often in bands of from fifty to a 

 couple of hundred. The larger bulls 

 were highest up the mountains and gen- 

 erally in small troops by themselves, 

 although occasionally one or two would 

 be found associating with a big herd 

 of cows, yearlings, and two-year-olds. 

 Many of the bulls had shed their ant- 

 lers; many had not. During the winter 

 the elk had evidently done much brows- 

 ing, but at this time they were grazing 

 almost exclusively, and seemed by pref- 

 erence to seek out the patches of old 

 grass which were last left bare by the 

 retreating snow. The bands moved 

 about very little, and if one were seen 



DEER ON THE PARADE GROUND. 



