The Zoology of North American Big Game 



in Europe in the red deer, which penetrated south- 

 ward into north Africa at a time when there was a 

 land connection across the Mediterranean. In the 

 opposite direction, the nearer we get to Bering's 

 Straits the closer is the resemblance to the Ameri- 

 can wapiti, until the splendid species from the Altai 

 Mountains (C. canadensis asiaticus), and Lueh- 

 dorf's deer (C. c. luehdorfi) from Manchuria, are 

 regarded only as sub-species of the eastern Ameri- 

 can form, which they approach through C. c. acci- 

 dent alts of Oregon and the northwestern Pacific 

 Coast. 



This evidence is conclusive in itself, and is 

 further confirmed by the geological record, from 

 which we know that the land connection between 

 Alaska and Kamtschatka was of Pliocene age, 

 while we have no knowledge of the wapiti in 

 America until the succeeding period. 



While there is not the least doubt that the 

 smaller American deer had an origin identical with 

 those of the old world, the exact point of their 

 separation is not so clear. Two possibilities are 

 open to choice : Mazama may be supposed to have 

 descended from the group to which Blastomeryx 

 belonged, this being a late Miocene genus from 

 Nebraska, with cervine molars, but otherwise much 

 like Cosoryx, which we have seen to be a possible 



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