IN THE FAR WEST. 



--5 



as high as a horse, and often attains a weight of eight hundred 

 pounds. Having- strong, though lithe limbs, a full body, 

 large, dark eyes, and a splendid head, which is adorned with 

 magnificent branching antlers five or six feet in length, and 

 bearing from five to seven prongs each, it is, in my estima- 

 tion, the finest specimen of its family on the Continent. It 

 has a proud, defiant, yet graceful mien, which makes it one of 

 the most superb adjuncts to a landscape, and its very gait is 

 enough to arouse the ardour of the most unimpressible sports- 

 man, it being the acme of easy yet vigorous motion. Its 

 antlers, which are highly prized for adorning dining-rooms, 

 frequently weigh from fifty to sixty pounds, so that they are 

 fit trophies to grace the proudest baronial halls. They some- 

 times assume eccentric shapes, for it is no very unusual sight 

 to see a burly stag with one of his antlers largely pal mated, 

 and the other curving downward, instead of upward, so that it 

 resembles the bend of the horns so marked in the mountain 

 sheep. Such antlers are deemed to be unusually valuable, 

 as their eccentricity is highly prized by collectors and ardent 

 lovers of the chase. 



During the summer the colour of the wapiti is a reddish- 

 chestnut, but it becomes darker in the autumn, and in winter 

 the hairs are tipped with a pale brown. The male has long 

 hairs on the neck and breast at all seasons, except the summer, 

 but these the female never possesses. The former has a bell 

 of hairs on the throat that frequently attains a length of five 

 or six inches, but it seems to be longest on the largest species. 



The sexes differ considerably in size, the female being much 

 the smaller, and, unlike the antelope, she is devoid of antlers, 

 yet one has been known occasionally to possess these useful 

 appendages a thing by no means uncommon in the deer family. 

 The animal ruts in September, but the "season being short, 

 the sportsman will find the stags in good condition about the 

 latter end of November, and ready to test to the fullest his 

 powers and endurance. Many of them are shot during the 

 running season by red and white hunters, as their melodious 

 whistles, when calling for the females, readily indicate their 

 presence, and lead the Nimrods to their quarters, when the 



