HABIT AND DOMESTICATION. 287 
though it sprung very much under the great strain, nor would 
he break his neck, a result which I rather desired. After he had 
become well worried I took a long chain and after a while suc- 
ceeded in getting it secured around his neck, and fastened it 
firmly to a post. We then detached the rope from his antler 
and went inside and commenced operations to cast him. This 
we at last succeeded in doing and in tying all his feet firmly to- 
gether, when the operation was readily performed. We then un- 
did the chain, and then his feet, and let him up, appreciating that 
he was too much exhausted and subdued to attack us. Still he 
retired in good order, and repeatedly looked around savagely, but 
that was all. By evening, however, he got wicked again and 
tried to break the fence to reach his keeper. The next day he 
showed less vicious symptoms, and his wickedness seemed to 
abate day by day, and by the end of a week all had disappeared 
and he was ever after as docile asa lamb. ‘This was soon dis- 
covered by the other buck, which was a year younger and over 
which he had tyrannized in a lordly way. Long before his antlers 
dropped off, which occurred in about four weeks, the young fel- 
low was taking his revenge abundantly, and my sympathies were 
very little excited, when I saw him chasing the old tyrant 
through the brush at a rattling pace, whenever he ventured near 
the harem, the government of which the young buck assumed 
and exercised with the same despotism which had characterized 
the rule of the other. This was in September, the height of 
the rutting season. In a very short time this young buck devel- 
oped all the wickedness of the first, but as I had no other one 
old enough for breeding I was obliged to endure him till a year 
from the first of the next January, when I castrated him also. 
And now for the last ten years he has been the tamest and most 
inoffensive Elk in the band. Even the monarch holds him in such 
contempt that he allows him to run with the does during the 
rutting season, although if he comes near him he will most 
likely get an admonition to keep at a respectful distance. 
I have been thus particular in describing the conduct of these 
two animals, because it serves to convey a more correct idea of 
their dispositions than I could give by any general explanation. 
These, however, must be regarded as showing the extreme of 
wickedness. The one that succeeded to the rule when he was two 
years old, after the second was castrated, never offered to attack a 
person, and manifested about the same disposition as the first 
which I had, of which I have before spoken. He felt his courage 
