90 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



Therefore it may be that things are about evened up after 

 all. 



The elk, the white-tail deer and the black-tail deer were 

 all found here when the country was new. They are all 

 closely related, but they differ a good deal in size, appear- 

 ance and habits. I have seen quite a good many deer of 

 both varieties weighed, after they were ready to ship for 

 market — this means of course with the head and hide on — 

 but I have never seen an elk weighed. A full-grown, white- 

 tail buck when fat will weigh from 150 to 175 pounds, and 

 sometimes a very large one will weigh 200 pounds — a full- 

 grown fat doe will weigh about 50 pounds less than a 

 buck. A black-tail deer will weigh about fifty pounds more 

 than the white-tail when in the same condition, although 

 a very large buck might weigh 75 pounds more than a 

 white-tail. The elk is from two and a half to three times 

 as large as a black-tail deer. 



The flesh of the doe elk is always sweet and good, even 

 when the animal is thin, but it is at its best from about the 

 first of September to the first of January. The flesh of the 

 buck is good in July and August, but gets strong in taste 

 and smell by the latter part of September, and is almost 

 unfit to eat thereafter for four or five months. It loses its 

 strong taste after a time, but the animal remains thin in 

 flesh until about the next July. The flesh of both varieties 

 of deer is nearly always sweet and good, but sometimes that 

 of an old buck will taste somewhat strong if killed after 

 about the first of December. During the spring and sum- 

 mer the elk are scattered about over the country in small 

 herds until the fawns are six weeks or two months old, when 

 they invariably begin to collect in large herds, sometimes 

 numbering hundreds in a bunch. In Nebraska, however, 

 I have never seen more than sixty in a herd excepting on 

 one occasion, and generally twenty to thirty was about the 

 limit. In September the old master buck would drive all 



