THE AMERICAN ELK IN SOUTHERN WISCON-^IN. 
By HF.NRY L. Ward. 
This, the most stately American representative of the deer 
family, has within the present generation of men given wav before 
the changes wrought by an increasing population and exploita- 
tion and has presumably become quite exterminated from Wis- 
cousin's soil although from the fact that some are reputed to still 
exist in Minnesota it would not be altogether surprising should 
a straggler now and then cross the boundary. 
The tempermental qualities of the animal which deter it from, 
at the first suspicion of danger, seeking safety in flight but cause 
it to linger until assured that its life is really menaced has rendered 
it less fit in the struggle for existence than is its smaller, more 
nervous, relative of this region, the white-tailed or Virginian deer ; 
and thus its numbers and range have been more rapidly restricted. 
In 1881 Judge Caton (i) wrote of it: ''But few quadrupeds 
in our country have occupied a wider range than the American 
Elk. He was found in every part of the present United States 
and in northern Mexico ; and was abundant in both Upper and 
Lower Canada, and in Labrador. In the interior, he was found 
as far north as the fifty-sixth or fifty-seventh degree of north lati- 
tude ; but I can not find any evidence that he ever went so far 
north on either coast. The last account I get of their presence 
in northern Illinois was in the year 1820 or thereabouts. Till 
comparatively recent times they were found in northern Iowa, 
and in 1877 I saw several accounts of them having been killed 
in the northern part of the lower peninsula of Michigan, also in 
Minnesota." 
In 1882 Dr. P. R. Hoy (2) wrote: "Elk, Cervus canadensis, 
were on Hay River in 1863, and I have but little doubt that a 
few still linger with us. The next to follow the btiffalo, antelope 
and reindeer." 
Moses Strong (3) in 1883 wrote of the elk: ''Occurs very 
rarely in northern and central Wisconsin. It was formerly quite 
numerous, but is now almost extinct." 
Mr. Hartley H. T. Jackson (4) writes : "The elk is without 
doubt now extinct in W^isconsin, but cast-off antlers scattered 
throughout the lakes, marshes and woods of northern Wisconsin 
attests of its former occurrence there. I have examined antlers 
of Cervus canadensis found in Ashland and Iron Counties." 
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