CHAPTER XIII 



THE elk/ past and PRESENT 



Migrating from the same ancestral homestead 

 — probably in eastern Siberia — thousands of years 

 ago, the elk of Europe journeyed westward, 

 while his brother, the moose, turning toward the 

 rising sun, crossed over to the North American 

 continent. Climatic changes ultimately destroyed 

 the forests of northern Siberia, and the elk moved 

 southward and westward, occupying the broad 

 plains of European Russia, and then advancing 

 into central and western Europe, as far as the 

 Atlantic, and the southern foothills of the Alps 

 and the Pyrenees. Increasing density of popula- 

 tion and disappearance of the timber in this western 

 extremity of his ancient range, caused the tide of 

 migration to recede, and the elk, slowly yielding 



^ "Elk" as here used, and throughout this and the following chapters, 

 denotes Cervus alces, the European and Asiatic relative of the moose. 

 It does not refer to the American elk or wapiti. When the word " moose'' 

 is used it will be understood as referring to the American representative 

 of the Alces genus, but without implying difference in species. 



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