WAPITI HUNTING. 29 



deer is taken alive and uninjured, it is carefully kept, and the horns, 

 if it be a male, are shorn off annually when they are at the right stage 

 of development. If it be a female it is kept for breeding purposes. 

 In many places there are large deer farms. 



In Shansi the native hunters resort to driving, several men with 

 guns being posted round a wood, wherein the deer are known to be 

 hiding, while others beat through it towards the guns. 



In Kansu and westward stalking or lying in wait for the deer 

 seem to be the favourite methods employed by the natives. 



To the European these methods do not appeal. Activity being 

 the essence of his existence, he prefers to go after his quarry, track it 

 to its lair, or stalk it on the open hillside and finally risk all on a 

 difficult shot, rather than make sure of it, by having it driven to him, 

 while he sits comfortably in some sheltered nook or shady dingle. 



A good many Europieans have hunted the Asiatic wapiti, but ifc 

 would be almost safe to say that the number of those who have shot 

 Ihe Shansi wapiti does not exceed half a dozen ; indeed it is my belief 

 that these deer were not definitely known to inhabit this region till 

 two years ago, when certain Europeans in Kuei-hua-ch'eng were told 

 of their existence. Subsequently in the spring of 1912 a party of four 

 ioreiguers, of wliich the writer was one, discovered them in the moun- 

 tains west of that city. Having secured a couple of specimens for 

 the Smithsonian Institution, we decided to leave them alone as they 

 were in very poor condition, trusting that at some future date fortune 

 would bring us to the same country at a more favourable season. 



My hopes in this direction were realized in the winter of 1913, during 

 a trip, already referred to in my paper on wild sheep. Captain Holcomb 

 and I were fortunate enough to discover a good stretch of wapiti country, 

 where we secured several nice trophies. A description of our ex- 

 periences will give the reader some idea of the splendid sport to be 

 had in the chase of this lordly creature. 



We arrived, after a hard journey, at a little village, nestling in 

 the shelter of a deep and narrow valley, one day early in December, 

 with a chill north wind blowing and a leaden snowy sky overhead. 

 We had hoped to get further up the valley, but the semi-frozen con- 

 dition of the rushing mountain stream pi-evented this, and we were 

 glad to accept the hospitality of a friendly villager, who placed two 

 good rooms at our disposal. 



Engaging some local haunters we started early next morning for 

 the deer grounds. The wind had increased overnight, and now came 

 whistling down from the north with a knife-like edge, that penetrated 



