MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 37 



"There are scattered through the woods, generally high on the hills, from 

 the Allegheny river down to the West branch and Clarion river, huge rocks, 

 some detached boulders and others projections of ledges. These are known 

 as elk rocks, and every one of them has been, in its day, the last resort of 

 some elk brought to bay after a long and hard chase. It was the habit of the 

 hunted elk, when it had in vain sought to throw the hunter and hound from 

 the trail to make its stand at one of these rocks. Mounting it, and facing its 

 foes, it fiercely fought off the assaults of the dogs by blows of his fore feet or 

 tremendous kicks from its hind feet, until the hunter came up and ended the 

 fight with his rifle. It would be strange if one or more of the dogs were not 

 stretched dead at the foot of the rock by the time the hunter arrived on the 

 scene. I have more than once found dead wolves lying about one of these 

 elk rocks, telling mutely, but eloquently, the tragic story of the pursuit of the 

 elk by the wolves, his coming to bay on the rock, the battle and the elk's 

 victory. The elk was not always victor, though, in such battles with wolves, 

 and I have frequently found the stripped skeleton of one lying among the 

 skeletons of wolves he had killed before being himself vanquished by their 

 savage and hungry fellows. 



" In the winter time the elks would gather in large herds and their range 

 would be exceedingly limited. Sonpetimes they would migrate to other 

 regions, and would not be seen for months in their haunts, but suddenly they 

 would return and be as plentiful as ever. They had their regular paths or 

 runways, through the woods, and these invariably led to salt licks, of which 

 there were many natural ones in northern Pennsylvania. One of the most 

 frequented of these elk paths started in a dense forest, where the town of 

 Ridgway, the county seat of Elk county, now stands, led to the great lick on 

 the Sinnemahoning portage, and thence through the forest to another big 

 lick, which to-day is covered by Washington Park, in the city of Bradford 

 [McKean Co.]. I have followed that elk path its whole length, when the 

 only sign of civilization was now and then a hunter's cabin, from the head- 

 waters of the Clarion river to the Allegheny, in McKean county. Hundreds 

 of elk were killed annually at the licks or while traveling to and from them, 

 along their well-marked runways. 



" The biggest set of elk antlers ever captured in the Pennsylvania woods 

 was secured in the Kettle creek country by Major Isaac Lyman, Philip Tome, 

 George Ayres, L. D. Spoffard and William Wattles. Philip Tome was a great 

 hunter, and the famous interpreter for Cornplanter and Blacksnake, the great 

 Indian chiefs. He came over from Warren county to help Major Lyman 

 capture an elk alive, and the party started in on the first snow, with plenty of 

 ropes and things. They camped, but the elk were in such big herds that 

 they couldn't get a chance at a single bull for more than a week. Then they 

 got the biggest one they ever saw and gave chase to him. They started him 



