5 6 



Elk 



the forest-clad portions of Germany, while its range also included Britain. 

 Although so much diminished in numbers in Europe, elk. are said to be 

 still abundant in the valley of the Lena, in the neighbourhood of Lake 

 Baikal, in Amurland, Mongolia, and Tungusia. In Norway they are 

 chiefly found in the eastern provinces of the south, while in Sweden their 

 home is the primeval forests clothing the chief mountain range. Antlers 

 and bones referable to this species have been obtained from the superficial 

 deposits of Cleveland, Walthamstow, and other parts of England, some of 

 which are preserved in the British Museum. The following paragraph 

 taken from the Times of 2nd January 1891 affords interesting informa- 

 tion as to the number of elk and reindeer in Scandinavia : — " The total 

 number of elk killed in Norway last year was 850, of which 515 were 

 male and 335 female, and of the eleven provinces in which they were 

 killed, Northern Trondhjem contributed 303. The number of reindeer 

 killed during the same period was 468, and 143 of them were killed in the 

 province of Romsdal. The number of elk killed in Sweden during the 

 same period was 1782, as against 2097 and 2178 in the two preceding 

 vears, and it has been remarked for some time that the number of elk in 

 Sweden has been diminishing." 



Habits. — The long limbs and deeply cleft hoofs of the elk show that it 

 is adapted to dwelling in marshy ground ; while the short neck and the 

 long, fleshy, prehensile muzzle indicate as clearly that it is a browsing 

 animal and unable to graze like other deer. In both hemispheres elk are, 

 indeed, essentially forest-dwelling animals, their favourite haunts in the 

 Scandinavian peninsula being the boundless forests of spruce and birch 

 clothing the central plateau. According to Mr. E. N. Buxton, in Norway 

 they are, however, much more abundant in the forests of deciduous trees 

 than in those composed of conifers, their food in summer consisting to a 

 great extent of the leaves of the mountain-ash. 



At this season their feeding time is in the early morning, and again in the 

 evening ; and by about ten o'clock in the morning they betake themselves 

 to their resting-places, from which, if unmolested, they do not stir till 

 about three in the afternoon. Elk are remarkable for their acuteness of 

 hearing, and are consequently exceedingly difficult to approach. In 

 districts where they are much hunted one of their favourite devices to avoid 

 successful pursuit is to return for a longer or shorter distance now and 



