THE MOOSE AND WAPITI 

 OF MANITOBA 



AND A PLEA FOR THEIR PRESERVATION 



At the Annual Meeting of the Historical and Scientific Society 

 of Manitoba, held in the Y.M.C.A. Building, Winnipeg, on the evening 

 of March 8th, 1906, the President, the Rev. Dr. Bryce, having intro- 

 duced the subject "The Moose and Wapiti" of Manitoba, called on 

 Mr. J. P. Turner, who read the following paper : 



I have been favored with a request 

 to read a short paper before your so- 

 ciety, and though it may be a little 

 out of the usual line of historical re- 

 cords, I have chosen for my subject 

 one which, I think, beam a significant 

 relation to Manitoba's history, and 

 one which, all too probably, will be 

 looked back upon by future genera- 

 tions as of far more importance than 

 we at the present date are inclined to 

 give it. I refer to our magnificent big 

 deer — the moose and wapiti — and their 

 outlook for the future. Though ex- 

 tremely different in general appear- 

 ances and characteristics, it seemlsi fit- 

 ting to class these two together. They 

 arc probably the most important in- 

 dividual characters among the whole 

 deer family on the North American 

 continent, and throughout the world, 

 they are the undisputed giantsi of their 

 kind. 



The moose is the most cunn'-- the 

 most prolific, and the hardiest of any 

 of the big game animals now existing 

 in a wild state, and the wapiti or elk is 

 the most imposing,the stateliest.and the 

 grandest type of all the antlered tribes 

 on the earth. Though a comparative- 

 ly small and less highly developed re- 

 presentative of the moose exists in 

 northern Europe, both these huge deer 

 are peculiar to the Nor^^ American 

 continent, and were among the most 

 plentiful of the large mammals on the 

 continent when the w'Jte man first 

 set foot upon it, The moose, assisted 

 not only by its superior cunning and 



capabilities of self-protection, but by 

 the more impenetrable nature of its 

 forest home, can be said to have held 

 its own against the wasting destruc- 

 tion of the white man's lust for kill- 

 ing. But next to the bison, the waDiti 

 has suffered more than any American 

 big game, and to-day we have at last 

 come face to face with the scattered 

 survivors of its former, countless 

 thousandsi. Roughly soeaking the 

 vast, natural range of the moose oc- 

 cupies the forest regions of the north- 

 erly half of North America from coast 

 to coast, with the chief exceptions of 

 portions of British Columbia, and most 

 of the country contiguous to Hudson's 

 Bay. The immense tract over which 

 it roams has probably not decreased 

 in total area from tha* of primitive 

 times; and some even declare that the 

 moose occupies more territory at the 

 present day than ever before. Be that 

 as it may, it is undoubtedly true that 

 in several portions of Canada it has 

 of recent years become more plentiful 

 than even the earliest records show it 

 to have ever been. It is not a. migra- 

 tory animal, but there are many in- 

 stances to show that, at long periods, 

 it will surrender a largo territory 

 where it has been well established, to 

 occupy another territory where it has 

 been hitherto little known. It is nat- 

 ural to believe that in the course of 

 time this assumes a slow and gradual 

 drifting back and forth from one area 

 to another. 



When we consider the enormous ex- 

 tent of its natural home, most of which 



