DEER-SHOOTING 49 



moose s-wimming, but that they have the same habit in 

 this respect as other deer is certain. All trappers and 

 Indians assert it. 



The wipiti is '■ the elk " of Americans ; and it is 

 almost as bulky an animal as the moose, but it varies 

 greatly in size — more so than any other species of deer 

 with which I am acquainted. Sometimes cows do not 

 weigh much more than three hundredweight, while bulls 

 will be nearly half a ton. I have shot specimens which 

 were quite as heavy as the largest bull moose. The 

 average weight of both moose and wipiti when in good 

 condition may be safely put at five hundredweight for 

 cows and eight hundredweight for bulls. They are 

 therefore magnificent animals, fully three times the 

 weight of Scottish red deer. In height neither moose 

 nor wipiti ever exceed by more than an inch or two six 

 feet at the withers ; though trappers, and especially 

 American ones, tell of monsters eight and nine feet high. 

 As a moose, or wipiti, of this height, if proportionate 

 throughout, must weigh 6000 or 7000 pounds at least, 

 the exaggeration of this estimate is palpable. I should 

 state, as a modification of what I have written above, 

 that the moose is slightly the tallest animal ; and that 

 on looking over my notes five feet ten inches appears to 

 have been the greatest height of a wipiti killed by me, and 

 six feet three or four that of a moose. The usual height 



o 



for bulls is five feet six for wipiti, five feet nine for moose. 



Both these deer bring forth their young in the desert 

 and most retired thickets they can find ; and so jealous 

 are they of discovery at this time that it is rare to see a 

 cow with her calf until it is evidently some weeks, if not 

 months, old. There is usually but a single calf; but I 

 have seen both moose and wipiti with two. They pair 

 in the autumn, and drop their calves in the spring. 



The smaller deer, found in the northern parts of the 

 States, do not seem to reach these high latitudes. At all 

 events I have never seen any signs of their so doing. 



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