BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA 407 



although he qualifies this by adding that one has been killed 

 which weighed 800 Ibs. ; while Mr. Andrew Williamson, in his 

 ' Sport and Photography in the Rockies/ guesses the weight of 

 his big bull at 1,200 Ibs. But most of this is guesswork. The 

 nearest approach to an accurate record of weight in my posses- 

 sion is taken from a statement made to me by an old Western 

 meat-hunter in whose truthfulness I have every confidence. This 

 man told me that the hind-quarters of the largest bull he ever 

 killed (' and I cut 'em off pretty high up,' he added) weighed, 

 when taken into town, a little over 400 Ibs. From this it would 

 appear that the live weight of the whole animal could not have 

 fallen far short of Mr. Williamson's estimate of the weight of 

 his big bull. 



In spite of the fact that no large areas of food pasture are 

 known on Vancouver Island, the wapiti found upon it do 

 not, in point of size, fall far short of those upon the mainland 

 of the American continent. I have myself, at the head of 

 the Salmon River on this island, shot a bull which measured 

 rather over 16 hands and i in. at. the shoulder, and appeared 

 to be a heavy stag for his size. Indeed, if the wapiti of Van- 

 couver Island vary at all from deer of the same species on 

 the mainland, it is in their antlers, which have always seemed 

 to me to be peculiarly heavy in the beam and narrow in the 

 span, whilst amongst them I have more than once noticed 

 specimens having cups similar to those of a Scotch royal : a 

 somewhat remarkable fact, as this formation is exceptionally 

 rare amongst the wapiti on the mainland of America. 



To anyone who has read this chapter thus far believing 

 what he read, it must appear that Cervus eanadensis is as fine a 

 game animal as the heart of a hunter could desire. But I have 

 onlv presented hitherto the fair side of the picture ; of course 

 it has another. The wapiti is superb, but his habits are beneath 

 contempt. While the gallant mountain ram lives out on the 

 open hill-tops, staking his life boldly upon the keenness of his 

 own senses, the great ' bull elk ' sneaks about in the shadows 

 of the densest timber he can find just below the edge of the 



