THE AMERICAN ELK. 



455 



Description. — Color yollovvish brown, darker on the under side 

 and legs; buttocks yellowish white. The antlers project back- 

 ward and outward and their tines point forward and upward. 

 Height of bull elk at shoulder, about five feet. Antlers sometimes 

 five feet in length. The female is smaller and paler colored. 



Range. — Formerly abundant in eastern Canada and the United 

 States, as far south, at least, as Tennessee ; westwardly it probably 

 extended to the Rocky Mountains; farther west are other closely 

 related species of elk. The eastern form has not a single living rep- 

 resentative and but one preserved skin is known to exirst. That one 

 is preserved in the Academy of Natural Sciences of PTiiladelphia. 



Records for Indiana are meagre. Dr. John T. Plummer says 

 that the last elk was killed near Richmond in 1811. Evermann and 

 Butler say that it was found in Ripley County subsequent to 1810. 

 E. J. Chansler, on the authority of Mr. Brad Thompson of Bruce- 

 ville, Knox County, states that an elk was seen near that place in 

 1830. Mr. Chansler also says that one was killed on Pond Creek, 

 Knox County, by G. T. Everbaugh in 1829. Another man is quoted 

 by Mr. Chansler as saying that an elk was seen in Knox County 

 in 1850. The last record is certainly erroneous or relates to a cap- 

 tive animal. 



The records given above for 1829 and 1830 are probably reliable 

 and are the latest ones of which I have any knowledge. Wied says 

 that they were already gone in 1832-3. Many of the local histories 

 I have examined speak of bear, deer and other game in the period 

 from 1820 to 1836, but do not mention elk at all, and they must 

 have been very rare even at this period, although in Pennsylvania 

 the last elk was not killed until 1867 (Rhoads, 1903, p. 30). 



Chansler tells me of the abundance of elk horns in Daviess and 

 Knox counties in early years, and Rev. T. IT. Ball, in the history of 

 Lake County, states that elk antlers were found in Cedar Lake in 

 that county. In the history of Dearborn and Ohio counties it is 

 stated that Ben Moulton found an elk's head on Laughery Creek 

 so large that when the tips of the antlers were placed on the ground 

 Moulton stood between them without touching the head. There are 

 pieces of elk antler in the State IMuseum from Jasper and Newton 

 counties. I know of no other records, although in the early days 

 the species was doubtless plentiful in all parts of the State. Usually 

 it prefers wooded and rough country and we may therefore suppose 

 that it was more al)undant in the wooded hills of the southern part 

 of the State than in the prairies of the northern portion. 



Habits. — The following account is drawn chiefly from the writ- 



