10 



ing enough for their present need, mercilessly engaged in an exter- 

 minating butchery. Rendered bold by their extremity, the elk were 

 easily dispatched with such implements as axes and corn-knives. 

 For years they were so numerous that the settlers could kill them 

 whenever 4 they desired to, but several severe winters and indiscrim- 

 inate slaughter soon greatly reduced their numbers, and now only a 

 few linger where formerly thousands lived, and these are rapidly dis- 

 appearing. Their home here being chiefly the open country, they 

 much sooner fall a prey to the " westward march of civilization," 

 through the most merciless treatment they receive at the hands of 

 the emigrant, than does the deer. 



From June to October the elk are said to be always fat and in 

 excellent condition for the table. Their flesh is described as being in 

 texture intermediate between beef and mutton, but superior in flavor 

 to either. In March the bucks shed their horns. As the new ones 

 begin to sprout they leave the herd and keep by themselves, in small 

 parties of about a dozen, till their horns are fully grown and hard, 

 when they begin to " run," as the hunters term it, and again join the 

 herd. About the twentieth of June the females are said to bring 

 forth their young. Towards autumn, when the calves have become 

 large and strong, the elk begin to gather in large herds. The horns 

 appear disproportionately large, especially when " in the velvet," at 

 which time the main, branches are as thick as one's arm, and their 

 appearance is far from pleasing. 



17. Cervus virginianus Boddaert. (Common deer.) 



More or less common, but steadily decreasing in numbers. I was 

 informed that in some sections they were on the increase, owing to 

 the fact that they were beginning to have a more favorable range, 

 through the gradual extension of the forests, due to the protec- 

 tion of the woodlands from the annual tires that formerly swept 

 over the country, and which probably more than any other cause 

 tended to keep the timber-tracts within their former restricted 

 areas. But it does not seem that this increase of the deer can be 

 more than temporary, unless stringent measures are taken to protect 

 them. If exposed to the indiscriminate slaughter to which this ani- 

 mal has generally been subject elsewhere, it niust certainly soon dis- 

 appear, as it has already done over so large a portion of the United 

 States east of the Mississippi. 



The white-tailed deer (C. leucurw), according to Dr. Hayden,* 

 * Transact. Amer. Phil. Soc., Vol. xn, 2d series, p. 149. 



