eee yee 
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 lbs. 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 good 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 buli which measured 
rather over 16 hands and 1 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 canadensis is as fine a 
game animal as the heart of a hunter coulddesire. But I have 
_ only presented hitherto the fair side of the picture ; of course. 
it hasanother. The wapitiis 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 
