Jan. I, 1898.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
6 
drop Inn, where Frank sprang to his rifle and sent a 
salute roaring back, but it came to us a subdued crack. 
Then his answering call, clear as a clarion note, rolled 
up over the treetops to the slide, and it was full of deep 
melody. 
This welcoming cry from beside our own camp-fire 
served to bring us to the realization that we had been 
out since early morning. We had had nothing but ici- 
cles and frosted snowballs to eat, and even that light diet 
palls on one after a while. The pangs of hunger 
spurred us on now, and we speculated as we tumbled 
down the rugged path on whether or not Frank had 
brought up a piece of his"vengeance"from the lower 
camp. But deer meat or dough gods, we wanted to get 
to it. 
"Chaw-dog" or "flippers" would be as good as par- 
tridge when we got to camp. Straight down the rugged 
path of the avalanche we slid. Once into the woods we 
cut across to a rocky run and decided to follow it down, 
and Madison was right in saying it would take us near 
our camp. It was dark in the overhanging woods where 
the moonlight did not penetrate, and some bad stumbling 
was our portion there. 
Halloos from camp sounded nearer and nearer, until 
we decided to cross the brook and make a bee line for 
the Dewdrop lean-to, which was reached after ten 
minutes' harcl scramble through the brush. 
Few and short were the stories told around the camp- 
fire that night. The ladies had not been idle during the 
day, for there were many more feathery boughs in the 
bed the second night, and less of the wintry Islast whis- 
tled through the roof of the lean-to. Besides this they 
had done some exploring. Sybil had guided the others 
through the woods to the Appalachian trail, thence to 
the basin lake, and she had taken her rifle along to pro- 
tect them. Then, too, she had hopes for a shot at a 
moose or a bear. But no such good hick attended her. 
Frank had returned from the lower camp and had a 
fine lot of wood cut. so that standing fire watch was not 
such labor as on the previous night; but who stood the 
watch neither Madison nor myself are able to say. 
The morning dawned cloudy and cold. There was no 
hope of going on the mountain that day, and as events 
proved, there was not a day in the next ten when the 
weather would permit a trip to the mountain. We had 
been fortunate in getting to the basin, and catching the 
only day in weeks when Old Sol and Pamola smiled in 
unison. 
As the dark clouds swept over the peak and rolled 
down the valley in smoky wracks they smothered all vis- 
ions of caribou and blotted out the chance for more pic- 
tures. 
The thought that a rain was blowing up was an un- 
pleasant one. Dewdrop Inn was not designed for a 
winter camp. The fir boughs would keep out about as 
much rain as a lawn tennis net, and even the best lawn 
tennis net will leak in a heavy rain. We estimated that 
that roof of fir boughs would leak for four days after the 
rain had ceased. It was unanimously voted to break 
camp and go down the mountain to the lower bivouac, 
where we would be more comfortable when the coming 
storm should break. 
Breaking camp is almost always a sad task, and Dew- 
drop Inn was no exception. We hurriedly made up our 
packs, somewhat lightened as to provisions and because 
we had burned up considerable bedding when the fire 
watchman slumbered while the flying sparks set the 
bedclothes on fire, and started down the trail toward 
Lake Mj'stery. 
Looking back toward the camp-fire, the usual little 
blue wreath of smoke arose like a hand waving a last 
farewell to us as we moved slowly away. Frank had 
swamped out a new trail around Lake Mystery to the 
north side, and thence turning south struck McLeod 
trail, over which we retraced our steps down the moun- 
tain side. 
The dry weather must have had a startling effect on 
the trail, for it was at least two miles shorter on the 
down trip. 
The waiting for good mountain weather at the base 
was without incident worth recording here. It is 
enough to say the fair weather never came. We had 
been away from Staceyville ten days and were running 
short of provisions, when we decided to go out of the 
wilderness. From deserted McLeod Camp we drove 
down the picturesque valley between the Black Hill and 
Turner Mountain. We followed the bed of the beautiful 
South Branch of the Wissataquoik, where were hun- 
dreds of pools delightful to the angler's eye, for they 
are swarming with handsome trout, and further down 
the river there were salmon over the spawning beds in 
schools of hundreds. 
This is not a game story, nor was it a hunting party; 
but our hunt at Jim Tracy's camp, near Dacy Dam, was 
one long to be remembered. It netted four deer, and 
they made a handsome showing on the back of the 
buckboards. With a light fall of snow in the lowlands 
one moose at least would have lost his horns. He is in 
the woods yet, but to say more would be telling, and he 
will be bigger and have a finer pair of antlers next fall. 
A splendid supper at the Hunt farm, eaten from real 
white dishes, and a night's rest in a good bed, were 
events of the return. 
With such a brave and patient quartette of the fair 
sex, who displayed such fortitude under the hardships 
our ladies experienced, a trip to the mountain could not 
fail to be a success whether made with or without the 
approval of Pamola. Frank E. Wolfe. 
Boston. - 
A Large Rangeley Tfout. 
R. N. Parish, of Montville, has on exhibition in the 
center window of Porteous & Mitchell's store a mounted 
brook trout caught by him with a fly in the Upper Dam 
Pool, in the Rangeley Lakes in Maine. The fish is the 
largest brook trout ever caught with a fly in the United 
States, and is a handsome sight. The catch was made by 
Mr. Parish while on a fishing jaunt Sept. 23, this year. 
The weight of the trout is plbs. iioz. The fish will be 
shown at the sportsmen's exhibition at Madison Square 
Garden in January next, and is sure of a prize. — Cooky's 
J'Veekly, Norwich, Conn. 
Roosevelt^s WapitL 
Cervtis Roosevefti, a New Elk from the Olympics. 
BY C. HAKT MERKIy\M. 
[From the Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington.] 
For many years naturalists have known of the pres- 
ence of elk in the Olympic Mountains and other ranges 
along the Pacific coast, but until recently no specimen, 
so far as I am aware, has found its way to any museum. 
When in the Olympic Mountains last August I arranged 
with two trappers who had established a winter camp 
in the deep canyon of Hoh River, at the north foot of 
Mt. Olympus, to secure specimens as soon as the animals 
had put oil the winter coat. The first of these — a fine 
old bull with massive antlers — has now arrived and is 
safely installed in our National Museum. 
Dr. J. G. Cooper, in his report on the Mammal's of 
the Forty-seventh and Forty-ninth Parallels, published in 
i860, states that the elk was abundant in the dense forests 
of the Coast Range, and adds: "An intelligent farmer, 
who formerly hunted elk in New York State, told me 
that he considered these a different animal, being much 
larger and having larger and differently formed horns" i. 
In the same volume George Gibbs states that "Judge 
Ford, long a settler in Washington Territory and an 
enthusiastic hunter, says that the elk of the Pacific coast 
is not the elk of the plains, but has a larger and coarser 
head. He has been through life familiar with game and 
is positive that they arc different animals" 2. John 
Kea.st Lord, in his "Naturalist in Vancouver Island and 
British Columbia," published in London in 1866, says: 
"The Wapiti on the Oregon coast grows much larger 
and differs in color from the animal found on the inland 
mountains." Dr. James C. Merrill, Major and Surgeon, 
U. S. Army, informs me that he also has seen numerous 
heads and antlers of the Olympic elk, all of which were 
distinguishable at a glance from the common species. 
In the Oregon exhibit of the World's Columbian Ex- 
position at Chicago, in 1893, were several mounted heads 
of this elk. They were examined by Hon. Theodore 
Roosevelt, who told me that they differed from those of 
the Rocky Mountain animal in being black and in having 
antlers with relatively straight beams and an irregular 
cluster of points at the tip instead of the usual incurved 
terminal prong. 
Mr. Roosevelt, in his entertaining "Wilderness 
Hunter," describes the Rocky Mountain elk or Avapiti as 
"not only the most stately and beautiful of American 
game, but also the noblest of the stag kind throughout 
the world;" and adds: "Whoever kills him has killed 
the chief of his race, for he stands far above his brethren 
of Asia and Europe." ' These remarks must now be 
transferred from the common wapiti to the Pacific coast 
animal. 
Last summer, when engaged in field-work in the 
Puget Sound region, I saw several heads and a few 
hides of this elk, and was surprised that such a superb 
species had remained so long undescribed. I deem it a 
privilege to name this splendid animal Roosevelt's 
wapiti. It is fitting that the noblest deer of America 
should perpetuate the name of one who, in the midst 
of a busy public career, has found time to study our 
larger mammals in their native haunts, and has written 
the best accounts we have ever had of their habits and 
chase. 
Cervas Rooscveiti sp. nov. Roosevelt's Wapiti, 
Type from Mt. Elaine (on ridge between heads of Hoh, Elwah, 
and Soleduc rivers) near Mt. Olympus, Olympic Mts., State of 
Washington. 
Type No. 91579, male ad., U. S. Nat. Mus., Biological Survey 
Coll. Collected Oct. 4, 1897, by Hans and Chris Emmet. 
General Characters. — Size large; head and legs black (probably 
only in winter pelage); skull and antlers massive; beams of antlers 
relatively short and straight, with terminal prong aborted. 
Description of type specimen (which has nearly completed the 
molt from fall to winter pelage). — Face from between eyes to 
nose-pad, sooty blackish, somewhat grizzled on cheeks with golden 
brown; eyelids black, surrounded by area of pale fulvous, incom- 
plete anteriorly; rest of head and neck brown, becoming black 
along median line, and mixed black and reddish on top of liead; 
back and sides a peculiar grayish brown with incomplete dusky 
stripe along median dorsal line; breast and belly dull reddish 
chestnut; legs and feet sooty black, with space between hoof and dew 
claws fulvous, the fulvous reaching up a short distance along-median 
line posteriorly ; forelegs abruptlyblack frombodyto hoof, with a nar- 
row fulvous patch on inner side of forearm; hindlegs and feet sooty 
black, the black on inner side of thigh reaching up nearly to proin, 
and on posterior aspect reaching nearly to rump in a band 40-50mm. 
wide, which curves slightly outward on each side of lower part of 
rump patch; rump patch pale dull buffy-fulvous, deepening be- 
tween thighs to pale tan; throat grizzled black and dark golden 
brown, becoming darker anteriorly, with a narrow median beard 
(about 30mm. broad) of pale fulvous, beginning opposite the angle 
of the mouth and sharply defined anteriorly and latterly by a 
blackish border, spreading and fading posteriorly; chin and lower 
lip blackish, with a sharply defined wedge-shaped mark of buffy 
fulvous on each side of median line, its base at anterior edge of lip, 
its apex directed posteriorly. Metatarsal gland (situate 160mm. 
below heel on outer side) a conspicuous oval patch of reddish ful- 
vous about 80mm. in length, inclosing a white central stripe 35mm. 
in length, and surrounded bv the black of the leg and foot. 
Cranial Characters.- — The skull of Cervus roosevelti, compared with 
that of C. canadensis from the Rocky Mountains, is much larger, 
broader and more massive. The frontals are not only conspicu- 
ously broader, but are very much flatter, giving tlie cranium a dif- 
ferent protile. The muzzle is also much broader. The cavities in 
front of the orbits, on the other hand, are decidedly smaller. 
Measurements of Type Specimen. — Total length, measured in 
flesh, 2490mm. (8ft. 2in.') ; tail in dry skin about 80mm. : ears in dry 
skin: from base posteriorly 225mm., from base of opening 208mm. 
Antlers: Spread 990mm. (3ft. Sin.); length of left b earn from 
burr to tip 1050 (iiytin.); circumference just above burr 285mm. 
(lli^in.); least cuxumference above bez-tine 190mm. (7%in.). 
Antlers. — The antlers are large, heavy and relatively 
short, with the terminal prongs aborted, so that the 
total length from burr to tip is about 500mm. (nearly 20 
inches) less than in well-formed antlers of the Rocky 
Mountain elk. The brow, bez, trez and fourth tine are 
similar to those of the ordinary wapiti, but above the 
fourth the antler is flattened and sub-palmate and ends 
in two or three short points, the tips of which reach only 
slisrhtly above the tip of the fourth prong. 
Whether the aborted condition of the terminal oart of 
the antler in Roosevelt's wapiti is the result of long 
residence in the dense Pacific coast forests, where long 
antlers would be inconvenient, or is indicative of closer 
1. Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol, XII., Pt. IT,, p. 88, 1860, . 
2. Ibid,, p. m. 
relation.ship with the stags of Europe and Asia, which 
normally carry somewhat similar antlers, is an interest- 
ing question. 
Among some black heads in a taxidertnist shop in 
Victoria I saw one, said to have been killed on Van- 
couver Island, in which the terminal prong of the antlers 
IS much longer than usual, approaching the normal con- 
dition of the Rocky Mountain animal. But it hy no 
means follows that the antlers in question belong to 
the head on which they were mounted, for many taxi- 
dermists have a reprehensible habit of grafting handsome 
antlers on handsome heads irrespective of zoological or 
geographical obstacles. During the past three months 
I have seen more than a dozen mounted heads of elk, 
deer and antelope bearing horns which the taxidermists 
admitted were selected from stock in hand, without refer- 
ence to the heads on which they grew. 
Other Specimens.— In the taxidermist shop of L. F. 
Richolt & Co., at Centralia, Wash., I examined a very 
beautiful hide of a wapiti killed in winter in Chehalis 
county. The color of the back and sides was a beautiful 
clear bluish gray, with a tint suggesting lavender, and 
the legs where they had been cut off were abruptly 
black. The amount of black on the head varies consid- 
erably in different specimens. Probably part of this 
vamtion is due to age and part to season. All of the 
adult winter heads were black from nose to ears, with 
more or less black on the neck. Some had;''the entire 
neck black, the black reaching back to this->'b'reast and 
nearly to the shoulders. The development of the mane 
seems to be much as in the Rocky Mountain wapiti. 
Geographic Distribution. — Roosevelt's wapiti inhabits 
the dense coniferous forests of the humid Pacific coast 
strip from near the northern end of Vancouver Island 
southward through the coast ranges of Washington and 
Oregon to northwestern California. In i860, according 
to George Gibbs, it followed the coast "all the way down 
to San Francisco" (Pacific Railroad Reports. Vol. XII., 
Pt. II., p. 133). This is a very natural distribution, cor- 
responding with that of many other species. Through 
the agency of man the southern part of the range has 
now been cut off, but just how far I am unable to say. 
Mr. Charles LI. Townsend, in his important "Field 
Notes on the Mammals, Birds and Reptiles of Northern 
California," published in 1887, says that the wapiti "still 
exists in moderate numbers in Mendocino, Humboldt 
and Trinity counties, along the upper courses of the Eel, 
Elk and Trinity rivers. Two large elk were shot in 
Humboldt county in December, 1885, and brought to 
Eureka,r where I saw them" 3. 
But the southern limit of its range is of far less conse- 
quence than the eastern limit, for the important question 
is. Do or do not the ranges of the Rocky Mountain and 
Pacific coast wapiti come together? Apparently they 
do not. Some of the old reports state that the Pacific 
elk formerly inhabited the Cascade range in Washington 
and Oregon. But even in this case the Cascades' are 
separated, except at the north, by the full breadth of the 
Great Basin and Plains of the Columbia. North of the 
Columbia River the forest region of the northern Cas- 
cades is practically connected with that of the Rocky 
Mountains by means of the timber-covered parts of 
southern British Columbia and the Colville Indian reser- 
vation of northern Washington. But this region, so far 
as I can learn, is not. and never has been, inhabited by 
elk. Mr. John Fannin, Curator of the Provincial Mu- 
seum at Victoria, tells me that while elk arc common on 
Vancouver Island they do not occur anywhere in British 
Columbia except along its eastern border in the Rocky 
Mountain region. 
At the time of my visit to the Olympics the latter part 
of August the elk had been recently driven out of the 
upper Hoh and Soleduc canyons by Indians, and the 
numerous tracks seen were ten days or two weeks old. 
Well-beaten trails followed the crests of the higher 
ridges and traversed the principal valleys. Many of these 
trails, with little labor, can be made available for horses, 
and afford almost the only means of penetrating the 
region. 
Mr. W. A. Perry has published the following account 
of the way Indians kill elk in these mountains. He says: 
"The principal Indian method of hunting the elk in the 
Olympic range is by driving them over precipices. Se- 
lecting a well-known spot on a well-traveled elk trail, 
they will lie in wait for weeks, until a band appears com- 
ing down the mountain. The place usually selected is 
one where the trail curves around' some great rock, just 
at the edge of a precipice a hundred feet or more in 
height. A scout, stationed high up the mountain, gives 
notice of the approach of a band, and then the Indians 
mass at the lower end of the curve, while others conceal 
themselves above the curve. As soon as the band passes 
the latter, they spring to their feet, rush down the trail, 
yelling and firing guns. The Indians at the lower end of 
the curve do the same, and the elk, finding themselves 
surrounded, leap over the cliff and are crushed on the > 
rocks below" 4. 
3. Proc. U. S. National Museum, X., pp. 168-169, 1887. 
4. "The Big Game of North America." Edited by G. O. Shields, 
p. 53, 1890. 
Concerning Compass Points. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I must confess to a good deal of skepticism regarding 
the rules given for finding the cardinal points when lost 
in the woods. For in deep evergreen woods the sun has 
very little chance to affect the growth of moss on the 
trunks, or to cast a shadow which would promote the 
growth of ferns or other shadow-loving plants on the 
north side of the trunks; as for the hardness of gum, 
that depends on its age; and then how is one to see 
through the thick roof of the boughs above him in what 
direction the tops bend, even if authors agree on that. 
Some will share my doubts, but many more will not; 
and now to settle the question, let every believer, who is 
so situated that he can do so, go out in the middle of a 
woods so large that the light of the open cannot be seen, 
accompanied by a friend who will blindfold him and lead 
him about until he has quite lost all idea of direction, 
when the blindfold shall be removed and he be left to 
find his way by the rules laid down. But he shall not 
have - running water nor the known trend of ledges to 
gui4e him. Try it and report. Awahsoose, 
