SPORT AND TRAVEL 247 



some twenty years ago, whilst exceptional animals 

 may have possibly very much exceeded this weight. 



Not many years ago the American wapiti was in- 

 disputably the finest deer in the world both in size 

 and weight of antlers, as well as in size and weight 

 of body. He is undoubtedly still the heaviest deer 

 in the world on the average, though the finest Hun- 

 garian and Caucasian red deer are possibly heavier 

 than some full-grown wapiti of to-day, but I think it 

 is doubtful whether the finest wapiti horns now 

 obtainable in the Rocky Mountains are equal in 

 weight to those of the finest red deer now living in 

 Eastern Europe and Western Asia, or to the finest 

 specimens of those of their nearer allies, the great 

 deer of Central and Eastern Asia. 



After having weighed the bull wapiti, Graham and 

 I again went up Cabin Creek after wild sheep, and 

 had a hard day's climbing, but saw nothing, nor any 

 fresh tracks. We got back to Davies' about 5 P. M. 

 and shortly afterwards one of our men saw an animal 

 feeding on the side of the mountain right above the 

 ranch. A look through the glasses showed that it 

 was a wapiti bull. He had evidently been lying up 

 in a patch of timber all day, and had just come out to 

 feed. Of course he could see the ranch below him 

 quite plainly, but as all the intervening ground was 

 open, I suppose he thought himself safe from molesta- 

 tion from that direction. I went after him alone, and 

 had first to walk about a mile down the river, in order 



