THE ELK.—FORM AND SIZE. 81 
for them to flee to, where they will not hear the report of the 
hunter’s, or the miner’s, or the herdsman’s rifle. They are now 
sometimes met with not far west of the Missouri River in secluded 
places, along the borders of the streams, coming down from the 
far off mountains, as well as along the broken foot-hills of the 
Rocky Mountains ; and high up, on the main ranges, the Elk are 
still to be found, sometimes singly, and sometimes in considerable 
bands. In 1870, Dr. Hayden’s party killed one, on the head- 
waters of the east fork of the Yellowstone, at an altitude of 
more than ten thousand feet above the sea. They will no doubt 
continue to maintain themselves in the more secluded parts of 
the country, where this, among the noblest of our game animals, 
will occasionally reward the hardy hunter, who shall with great 
energy and toil seek him in his retreat. 
They have been observed quite lately on the Lower Yellow- 
stone River in greater numbers than in any other place of which 
I have any account. Lieut. L. B. Carpenter, U. S. A., informs 
me that he has seen them there in immense droves containing 
perhaps thousands. I have never heard of so large congregations 
of the Wapiti in any other place at any time. 
FORM AND SIZE. 
In size the Elk is only less than the moose, but in this regard 
they vary very much, when adult, as well as in form. The 
southern Elk attain the largest size, which is exceptional among 
the deer. The first male Elk I ever had was sent me from the 
south, and he was the largest I ever owned. When he arrived, 
he was. three years old and weighed six hundred and fifty 
pounds after having been four days on steamboat and cars. In 
September, after he was five years old, some reckless or vicious 
person shot and broke one of his hind legs, when I was obliged 
to kill him. He was very fat, and the butcher who dressed him, 
estimated that he would weigh nine hundred pounds live weight. 
He stood over sixteen hands high, at the withers. As the Elk 
grows till he is eight or nine years old, had the Elk we are writ- 
ing about lived his full age I think he would have attained to 
the weight of ten or eleven hundred pounds. I shall always re- 
gret the loss of such an opportunity to ascertain, approximately, 
the greatest weight which the Elk will attain. I have had does 
that would not weigh over three hundred and fifty pounds at full 
maturity, and were scarcely more than three and a half feet 
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