The Wapiti or Round- horned Elk 145 



after thundering down the steep, broken incline, 

 they all disappeared into a belt of woodland. In 

 spite of their size, wapiti climb well and go sure- 

 footedly over difficult and dangerous ground. 

 They have a habit of coming out to the edges 

 of cliffs, or on mountain spurs, and looking over 

 the landscape beneath, almost as though they en- 

 joyed the scenery. What their real object is on 

 such occasions I do not know. 



The nose of the wapiti is very keen. Its sight 

 is much inferior to that of the antelope, but about 

 as good as a deer's. Its hearing is also much like 

 that of a deer. When in country where it is little 

 molested, it feeds and moves about freely by day, 

 lying down to rest at intervals, like cattle. Wapiti 

 offer especial attractions to the hunter, and next to 

 the bison are more quickly exterminated than any 

 other kind of game. Only the fact that they 

 possess a far wider range of habitat than either 

 the mule-deer, the prongbuck, or the moose, has 

 enabled them still to exist. Their gregariousness 

 is also against them. Even after the rut the 

 herds continue together until in mid spring the 

 bulls shed their antlers for they keep their 

 antlers at least two months longer than deer. 

 During the fall, winter, and early spring wapiti 

 are roving, restless creatures. Their habit of 

 migration varies with locality, as among mule- 

 deer. Along the Little Missouri, as in the plains 



