WILD ELK IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 27 



in that State now pay a large part of the cost of game protection; 

 the addition of a small resident license fee for hunting would make 

 the actual revenue exceed considerably the cost of fish and game 

 preservation. In addition, licensed guides earn about $360,000 a 

 year, while hotel keepers, railroads, express companies, and others 

 derive greatly increased incomes from the sportsmen and tourists 

 who are attracted to the State by its excellent hunting and fishing. 

 Any State that has big game may profit by its preservation, and 

 owners of private big game preserves should find them equally re- 

 munerative. 



Its polygamous habit is a favorable factor in preserving the elk. 

 The extermination of the buffalo was hastened by the fact that 

 hunters, both white and native, preferred to kill the cows. Their 

 flesh was superior to that of the bulls, while the robes they produced 

 were of finer quality. In the course of time polyandry became so 

 fixed among buffaloes that reproduction fell much below the nor- 

 mal rate. In the case of the elk, polygamy is the rule; and the de- 

 struction for trophies of males only, as well as the laws of States 

 which forbid the killing of does, serves to perpetuate the species. 

 The breeding of the animals is thus kept at a maximum rate. 



The fact that elk congregate in large herds in winter has been 

 unfavorable to their preservation. Pasture in their winter ranges is 

 often insufficient for the demand, and the weaker animals perish. In 

 recent years, because of the encroachments of cattle and other stock 

 upon the range, elk winter higher up in the mountains, where the 

 snowfall is great. Poachers wearing snowshoes often approach 

 and destroy an entire herd. Under adequate protection and with a 

 proper supply of winter forage the gregarious habits of the elk would 

 give increased security to the herds, but conditions hitherto have not 

 brought about such results. On the contrary, wherever elk have 

 been abundant much unlawful slaughter of the animals has taken 

 place. Not only have nonresident hunters engaged in the business 

 of killing them for heads, hides, and tusks, but residents of the game 

 country have sometimes engaged in the same nefarious practice. 



WILD ELK IN THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



Probably the last wild elk of the original stock east of the Mis- 

 sissippi was killed in November, 1867, in Elk County, Pa., though 

 possibly a few remained a little longer in the mountains of West 

 Virginia. A few wealthy men have stocked private preserves with 

 elk from the Rocky Mountains, and the experiment of acclimatizing 

 them in the East has proved uniformly successful. A number of 

 preserves in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, 

 Pennsylvania, and North Carolina have been noted for fine herds of 

 these animals, the best known, perhaps, being those of Austin Corbin 



