32 2 REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



Among the hoofed animals, the caribou (Rangifer caribou) occurred formerly 

 in abundance in northern New England, southern Quebec and the Maritime 

 Provinces, but never reached the Adirondacks. Probably the absence of suitable 

 barrens had more to do with this than any climatic cause. 



The American elk or wapiti (Cervus canadensis), on the other hand, was at 

 one time numerous in the Adirondacks, to which it is now very properly being 

 restored. It existed in the western half of the State during the early part of 

 the last century. 



The Adirondack elk belonged to the type known as the eastern elk, which 

 is probably now entirely extinct. The difference, however, between it and the 

 well-known elk of the Rocky Mountains would not be great in the eyes of an 

 unscientific observer. 



With the permission of Major W. Austin Wadsworth, the former President 

 of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission of this State, a photograph is published 

 herewith, showing antlers of several elk killed in the Genesee Valley about 1843. 

 There is a definite record of an elk killed at Bolivar, in Allegany County, New 

 York, in 1834. The celebrated Flag Swamp elk was killed in Elk County. Penn- 

 sylvania, in 1867, and was probably the last of this species in the Allegheny 

 Mountains, unless some stragglers lingered on later in West Virginia. 



The late Eli Parker, captain in the United States Regular Army, and a 

 full-blooded Seneca Indian, who recently died at an advanced age, told the writer 

 that, as a boy, he remembered clearly hearing the old men of his tribe, then 

 located in western New York, tell of their annual hunts to the south — Pennsylvania 

 — for elk, and to the east — Adirondacks — for moose. 



In 1901 an effort was made to restore this animal to the Adirondacks by 

 liberating twenty-two elk, and in 1903 a large herd was liberated in the woods 

 through the liberality of the late William C. Whitney. The attempt has been 

 successful, and it is estimated that there are to-day fully two hundred of these 

 splendid creatures at large in the North Woods. If from time to time some new 

 stock is introduced — a few bulls would be sufficient — the elk will certainly be 

 reestablished. 



The moose (A/ces americanns) is, of course, well known to have existed in the 

 Adirondacks as late as the early '6o's and was specifically identical with the type 



