304 



THE OLD-WORLD ELK 



variety of trees, shrubs, and water plants as in the 

 case of the moose. 



In both European and Asiatic Russia it has been 

 observed that elk make periodic migrations — 

 perhaps in imitation of their neighbors the reindeer. 

 Many of these journeys between the uplands and 

 the lowlands are short, and have no more signifi- 

 cance than the movements of moose in America in 

 anticipation of a winter of deep snow. Siberian 

 elk, however, are said to make annual journeys at 

 the end of winter from the forest cover of the 

 southern mountains to the broad open tundra 

 of the north, covering 400 or 500 miles. Persecu- 

 tion by insects and parasites is believed to have as 

 much to do with these movements as questions of 

 forage."* 



A Russian naturalist, Sabanejeff, made close 

 observations of the annual migrations of great herds 

 of elk from the west side of the Ural range, north 

 of the 60th parallel, across the mountains in a 

 southeasterly direction through six degrees of 

 latitude. The journey toward the southeast be- 

 gins in September, in anticipation of the deep 

 snows. In the winter refuge of these elk, south- 

 east of Ekaterinburg, the season of snow is much 



4 Martenson, uhi supra, p. 105. 



