228 ACROSS MONGOLIAN PLAINS 



over the hill where the wapiti had first appeared. He 

 told us that he had knocked the bull down at long range 

 and had expected to find him dead until he heard me 

 shooting. We found where his bullet had struck the 

 wapiti in the shoulder, yet the animal was running as 

 though untouched. 



I examined the bull with the greatest interest, for 

 it was the first Asiatic wapiti of this species that I had 

 ever seen. Its splendid antlers carried eleven points 

 but they were not as massive in the beam or as sharply 

 bent backward at the tips as are those of the American 

 elk. Because of its richer coloration, however, it was 

 decidedly handsomer than any of the American ani- 

 mals. 



But the really extraordinary thing was to find the 

 wapiti there at all. It seemed as incongruous as the 

 first automobile that I saw upon the Gobi Desert, for 

 in every other part of the world the animal is a resi- 

 dent of the park-like openings in the forests. Here not 

 a twig or bush was in sight, only the rolling, grass- 

 covered uplands. Undoubtedly these mountains had 

 been wooded many years ago, and as the trees were cut 

 away, the animals had no alternative except to die or 

 adapt themselves to almost plains conditions. The 

 sparse birch scrub in the ravines still afforded them 

 limited protection during the day, but they could feed 

 only at night. It was a case of rapid adaptation to 

 changed environment such as I have seen nowhere else 

 in all the world. 



The wapiti, of course, owed their continued exist- 



