12 



In early days venison and buckskin were almost indispensible 

 articles in the home of the settler. Fortunately, deer were so plen- 

 tiful that the supply of these commodities was usually ample. Many 

 stories are told by old hunters which illustrate the former abun- 

 dance of this animal. Mr. Van Buren Arbogast, who still lives at 

 Durbin, Pocahontas county, has killed, according to records he has 

 kept, over 600 deer. Hu Maxwell states that in 1841 three men 

 named Mace, Harper and Stalnaker, living in the upper end of 

 Randolph covmty, entered into a partnership to hunt to raise money 

 to pay for land. They killed in one season 169 deer and 49 bears 

 and carried the meat to Clover Lick where they sold it at three 

 cents a pound. (History of Randolph County, p. 296.) Emerson 

 Carney, of Morgan town, writing to Forest and Stream, says that 

 as late as 1900 a hunter named John Burner killed during the 

 season 35 deer and 3 bears, besides other small game, all in the 

 mountains of Pocahontas county. 



Such wholesale killing is, of course, deplorable and, at present, 

 is impossible on accoimt of the scarcity of deer. The protective 

 laws which we have at present, if continued and enforced, will 

 doubtless result in the near future in an increased number of this 

 and other species of game animals. 



Elk of Eastern Wapiti, Gerrus canadensis Exr. 



This animal, although for many years extinct in our limits, was 

 once of rather common occurrence in our higher mountain regions. 

 ]Mr. Van Buren Arbogast, of Durbin, can remember when his fa- 

 ther, ]\Ioses Arbogast, saw a herd of seven elk in that region in 

 1845. He remembers also that his father killed an elk on the head 

 of the West Fork of Greenbrier river but does not recall the year. 

 John P. Hale, in his book entitled " Trans- Allegheny Pioneers," 

 states that probably the last elk killed east of the Ohio river was 

 killed by Billie Yoimg, on Two Mile creek of Elk river, about five 

 and a half miles from Charleston, in 1820. Hu Maxwell, in his 

 history of Randolph county, however, shows that elk were killed in 

 West Virginia after that date. He states that one was shot by the 

 wife of Thomas B. Summerfield at a deer lick near the Sinks of 

 Grandy, probably about 1830. Abraham MuUenix killed one near 

 the same place sometime near 1835. About the year 1840 an elk 

 was killed in Randolph county near the mouth of Red creek. Ac- 



