THE WAPITI AND THE LUHDOEF'S DEER. 459 



But the various industries, mining, rancliing, and farming, are 

 fatal to the existence of big game, and the same story has to be 

 told of the noble wapiti as of all the other animals indigenous to 

 the new world ; the demand for their hides, which have more than 

 doubled in value lately, the increase in the number of sports- 

 men who annually visit their haunts, and other causes, are all 

 conducive to the one inevitable result. The extermination of the 

 wapiti is nearly an accomplished fact in the countries east of the 

 Mississippi, and after the lapse of a few more years the same 

 remark will doubtless be applicable to the territories to the west 

 of the river. 



The wapiti deer was found all along the coast of America from 

 Canada to the Grulf of Mexico. Mr. Hays, in the paper referred 

 to in the previous chapter on the elk, drew attention to the fact 

 that Yanderdonck mentions them as being plentiful in 1642 

 around New Netherland, which nearly corresponds with the 

 modern State of New York. Father Le Moine made a journey in 

 1654 to the western part of this State, and speaks of the astonish- 

 ing number of the deer and of the great number of elk (wapiti), 

 many of which were killed while crossing the rivers. According to 

 Brickell, elk were plentiful in the Oarolinas as late as 1737. "As 

 late as 1826," remarks Hays, "elk were killed on the Saranac in 

 New York ; a few were in the mountains of Pennsylvania in 1864 ; 

 now it is probable that not one could be found east of the Great 

 Lakes." 



The wapiti is probably the most ferocious of all the deer tribe, 

 for at certain seasons of the year, when his horns have attained 

 their full size, he will boldly face a man, and charge straight at 

 him. The animal in the Zoological Gardens is also of a fierce 

 disposition, and very hard to photograph, for, as the writer dis- 

 covered, when the bars were approached so that the lens of the 

 camera could be inserted between them, the animal would imme- 

 diately charge it; and it was necessary to beat a rapid retreat from 

 the range of the huge horns. 



The wapiti stags fight desperately among themselves during the 

 rutting season, and these encounters often end fatally, though 

 perhaps, in the majority of cases, they are terminated simply by 



