THE ELK, PAST AND PRESENT 273 



the tender twigs of the willow in the Asiatic forests. 

 Furthermore, though separated in habitat since 

 long before the first pages of history were written, 

 by the submersion of the neck of land which once 

 connected Asia and America at Bering Strait, 

 the elk and the moose are today so alike in physical 



An Asiatic Rock-Carving 



characteristics and in habits that many writers 

 refuse to consider them even different species 

 of the same genus. 



Perhaps the earliest extant portrait of the elk 



is one executed by a prehistoric artist in the valley 



of the Ussuri, on the Russo-Chinese frontier, not 



far from the Sea of Japan. This region, it is 



believed, was the elk's ancestral home. The 



picture is a rock-carving. The animal as the 

 18 



