HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 295 



vioiisly produced fawns. It was now evident that his day of use- 

 fuhiess was passed, and he was transhited to a very respectable 

 position under Professor Esmark, as stated above. He was suc- 

 ceeded by a buck not more than a year younger, who lost, and 

 then regained, his sway during the season. The result was that 

 I had twelve fawns the next season, including one pair of twins, 

 which are rare from the Elk in domestication. Such is the 

 character of the evidence which induces the conclusion at which 

 I have arrived as to the diminished reproductive powers of the 

 Elk in semi-domestication. The disinclination of the female, 

 especially the young, may be partly owing to the limited selec- 

 tion of food, or want of proper aliment ; but as she keeps in per- 

 fect health, and in fine condition, it can hardly be attributed to 

 this entirely. After all, I think the partial restraint to which 

 they are subjected, which is so unnatural to them, their ancestors 

 for untold generations having had unlimited range to go when 

 and where they pleased, and to select such associates as thev 

 pleased, is the greatest cause of the disinclination of the females 

 to reproduce, and no doubt has its influence upon the fertility 

 of the male. In the wild state the female is believed to breed at 

 two, or at most three, years old, the young females producing one 

 fawn at a birth, and the old ones generally twins, and three are 

 sometimes produced at a birth. The fact that in my grounds the 

 females, never, to my knowledge, have bred before four years old, 

 and never, I think, more than two thirds of these have bred in 

 any one year, and that twins are of very rare occurrence, certainly 

 shows a sad degeneracy. The last summer I saw three great fel- 

 lows sucking a large doe at one time, and she bore their rough 

 treatment with maternal resignation ; but I suspect that one of 

 them, at least, was a poacher on the others' preserves. Remember 

 that all the deer tribe have four active mammfe. No doubt lona; 

 domestication of Wapiti would produce such a change in the con- 

 stitution of the race that it would so conform itself to the changed 

 condition that its reproductive powers would be practically re- 

 stored. 



I have never experimented with this deer as a beast of draught, 

 which, after all, as a question of practical utility, is one of great 

 importance. I have a pair of castrated fawns now in the stable, 

 which promise good results. I have seen them a few times in 

 harness, but always too young to work. I once bought a pair of 

 yearling does in harness, but they were only partially broken, and 

 were overloaded with a light buggy and man in it, and so would 



