Wild Animals of Mt. Rainier National Park. 33 



iished here, is one that would have to be carefully studied. 

 No tract obviously suited to that purpose was noted by us. 

 Should such exist, elk could be brought from the Olympic 

 Forest Reserve to form the nucleus of a herd here. There 

 are now in the Olympics 2,500 or 3,000 elk of the Cervus 

 occidentalis, or Ro'Osevelti, almost the sole survivors of the 

 vast bands which once ranged on the Pacific Coast. Were 

 an attempt made to bring to Mt. Rainier individuals of 

 the Olympic herd, it would probably be necessary, in 

 order to accomplish their transfer without injury and to 

 retain control of them afterwards, to hold them first seg- 

 regated for several months under constant supervision 

 and care, and thus partially domesticate them, before 

 attempting to accomplish such removal to their new home. 

 It is not, however, believed that the conditions are favor- 

 able for their presence here. 



Mountain sheep, while they range on the east side 

 of the Cascades, are not found in the park, and there is 

 no sign of their formerly having been there; probably 

 the winter range is not such as they would accept. These 

 creatures do not dislike a wooded range such as may be 

 found in an open forest where grass abounds, as so often 

 is the case in the Rocky Mountains and southern Sierra ; 

 but it is to be noted as a characteristic of large tracts of 

 the Washington woods, and particularly of those around 

 Mt. Rainier, that grass is rarely found except immedi- 

 ately below the glaciers and in the valleys in that vicinity. 

 W^hile the ground in the forest is covered with a solid 

 mass of verdure, a tantalizing sight to the hungry horses 

 of the traveler there, unfortunately for them it mainly 

 consists of a feathery moss, or of the scanty "browse" of 

 bushes, or of slight herbage not acceptable to the palates 

 of horses, elk, or mountain sheep. 



Deer are found in considerable abundance, and are 

 still killed to some extent, regardless of law. The writer 

 saw on one excursion a string of a dozen or fifteen dead- 

 falls which had been baited with deer-meat and set for 

 marten two winters previously. In one of these traps 



