American Big Game in its Haunts 



or sub-species inhabiting the plains (auduboni) is 

 now extinct over the greater part of its range, 

 occurring only in the localities mentioned by you. 

 The sheep of the mountains always lived there, 

 and, in my opinion, has received no accession from 

 the plains. In other words, to my mind it is not a 

 case of changed habit, but a case of extermination 

 over large areas. The same I believe to be true in 

 the case of elk and many other animals." 



That this is true of the elk and within my own 

 recollection is certainly the fact. In the early 

 days of my western travel, elk were reasonably 

 abundant over the whole plains as far east as 

 within 1 20 miles of the city of Omaha on the Mis- 

 souri River, north to the Canadian boundary line 

 and far beyond and south at least to the In- 

 dian Territory. From all this great area as far 

 west as the Rocky Mountains they have disap- 

 peared, not by any emigration to other localities, 

 but by absolute extermination. 



A few years ago we knew but one species of 

 mountain sheep, the common bighorn of the West, 

 but with the opening of new territories and their 

 invasion by white men, more and more specimens 

 of the bighorn have come into the hands of 

 naturalists, with the result that a number of new 

 forms have been described covering territory from 



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