ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1485 



THAT SUMMER, WHITE PATCH ASCENDED TO THE SUMMITS OF THE MOUNTAINS 



Soon after the first snow came, at first light 

 and feathery, and beautiful. White Patch and 

 his companions had great sport racing through 

 it. Later on the clouds became more dense, and 

 the snow storms increased until all the grass 

 was buried out of sight. Very soon the snow 

 was a foot deep. Up to that time the elk had 

 remained far back and high up in the moun- 

 tains, but now, under the wise leadership of 

 the mother of White Patch they began to de- 

 scend. In single file, they toiled downward 

 through the glistening snow-field until they 

 passed below the snow, and again came to where 

 grass, only, covered the ground. 



White Patch marvelled much as he looked 

 back from whence they had just come, and saw 

 all the mountain tops glistening white with 

 snow. As they continued to descend they fell 

 in with other elk, and their herd became manj^ 

 times larger than when they were in the higher 

 country. In the greater company there was 

 much excitement and confusion. Many more 

 large bull elk had appeared and they were fight- 

 ing continually, their great horns rattling to- 



gether at frequent intervals. Added to this, 

 was the incessant bugling, and the constant call- 

 ing of the cows and calves to locate each other. 



Then more snow fell, piling up deeper in the 

 higher mountains and extending far down to the 

 valley, as the long lines of elk descended. More 

 elk ajjpeared and joined the moving masses un- 

 til they formed a tremendous crowd, all steadily 

 moving down to the lower country. 



White Patch, in his dreams during the bright 

 sunshine of summer, had foreseen that they 

 must leave their beautiful summer home because 

 of intense cold and much suffering for food, and 

 now the snow and winter were upon them. The 

 male elk seemed to lose all interest in the herd 

 and went on ahead, as though they knew and 

 dreaded the high mountains in winter. Soon 

 the main bunches of elk overtook the males and 

 joined the great herd that were already scat- 

 tered over the wind-swept mountain slopes. 

 The cold was now intense; and in their search 

 for food they spread apart, breaking up into 

 small bands. With White Patch and his mother 

 there were scarcely twenty-five elk. 



