MAMMALS OF THE MEXICAN BOUNDAKY. 217 



Habits and local distribution. — Among my notes referring to this 

 species I find a copy of a letter dated Fort Verde, Arizona, March 29, 

 1888, addressed to Dr. J. A. Allen, containing the following : 



Box No. 10 should be unpacked, and the skulls in it put away without unwrap- 

 ping. In it is the skin of a fine adult male elk, taken by E. W. Nelson, in the 

 White Mountains, Arizona. Mr. Nelson generously placed the specimen at my 

 disposal for just what it cost him to transport it out of the woods ($25). It 

 cost me six dollars ($6) to get it from his place to Fort Verde, making a total 

 cost of $31. The horns are different in shape from any others I have seen. The 

 head is in another box (No. 11), to be sent with the next lot. I think it will 

 make a nice specimen for mounting; and I will present it to the Museum for 

 that purpose. If it can be mounted soon I will be able to describe it better 

 when I reach New York. The elk has become so scarce in Arizona that I think 

 it doubtful .whether other specimens will be preserved from this Territory. A 

 small number still reside in the White Mountains, ranging in a very limited 

 area. There are no others in Arizona. I explored their late stronghold in the 

 region about San Francisco Mountain very thoroughly last summer without 

 finding other evidence of its previous existence than a few fragments of very 

 old horns. It is thought to be entirely extirpated from there by the hunters. 

 None have been seen alive for several years ; and they would have been seen if 

 any were there. 



Of four letters now before me, received from Mr. Nelson and con- 

 taining references to the elk skin, which he finally forwarded from 

 St. Johns, Arizona, January 7, 1887, only the first, dated Springer- 

 ville, Arizona, January 24, 1886, contains data of interest, as follows : 



A party of five made a hunt this fall around the base of " Baldy " (Mount 

 Ord), across Black River on the reservation; thence across the Blue Range to 

 the Blue River, about 20 miles above its junction with the San Francisco River, 

 and thence home [to Springerville]. We were in a very rough country with not 

 much game. We got deer (black and white tailed), one elk, two black bears, 

 and some turkeys. Would you like a description of the elk, a fine 4-pronged 

 buck in new winter fur? A fine B'prong buck in the velvet I sent to Washington 

 last August. It was shot in June. Elk are becoming very scarce here now. 



He next referred to the elk skin (No. 16211, Am. Mus. Nat. Hist.), 

 April 10, 1886, as follows: 



It is a fine 4-pronged buck in prime winter fur, and the skin is in good mount- 

 able condition. 



Later, Mr. Nelson very kindly sent me the following : 



ELK NOTES. 



A few years since, the ell£ was comparatively numerous in the White Moun- 

 tains of this Territory and was most plentiful on the eastern slope of this 

 group. 



The flanks of " Baldy," or Mount. Ord, as it is marked on the maps, and the 

 country about the heads of Black River formed their summer resort. In 

 winter they followed down Black River, where a lower altitude gave them a 

 milder winter climate. At this season, as at present, they did not seek to leave 

 the snow, but merely found a level where the snow was not so heavy as in the 

 high summer country. The last five or six years has nearly exterminated 

 them in these mountains. The country has been settled by cattle ranchers 



