THE WAPITI 
Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, were so great that, for five or six miles 
leading to the 4 licks,* the paths of these animals were as large as many 
of the great public roads of our country.” 
The original range of the wapiti was roughly some 2,500,000 square 
miles. The species vanished slowly from the east in the early part of the 
nineteenth century and from a considerable portion of its western habitat. 
Despite the constant attacks of Indians on wapiti and bison it is more or 
less proved that they made little difference in the numbers of these animals; 
but the white men, with their accurate rifles, followed by the railways 
cutting through the north and south of the ranges, soon completed the great 
destruction which may be said to have occurred between 1840 and to-day. 
At the present moment there are in the Yellowstone Park and its adjacent 
territory some 45,000 head of wapiti, but these again are being rapidly 
reduced not so much by the shooting of men as by the gradual shrinkage 
of the winter range. Only a few years ago all the country about the Snake 
River, Jackson’s Hole, was unfenced and the deer in winter could roam away 
to the Bighorns and into Montana and Idaho, but now an iron fence holds 
them back on all sides, and if they break through they are often mercilessly 
slaughtered by the farmers who wish the grass for their stock. In conse- 
quence thousands yearly die of starvation, particularly the young stock, and 
were it not for the kindness of some of the farmers in Jackson’s Hole, who 
do their best to preserve these fine animals, thousands more would perish. 
The result of all this curtailment of range and poor feeding is that the 
wapiti of this part of North America are not the grand creatures they were 
thirty years ago, and evidence of this is shown by the fact that no good heads 
are now ever killed in this area. I have not seen a good wapiti head in the 
London taxidermists* shops since Mr Moncrieff killed his fine specimen 
nearly twenty years ago, and the American naturalists tell the same tale. 
Those giants of the seventies and even eighties shot by the Coopers, Mr 
Williamson, Mr Baillie Grohmann and a few other Englishmen have gone 
for ever and, in their place, the hunter must be content with the twelve 
pointer of about 45 inches in length. There are, it is true, still a few grand 
wapiti left in North America in two small areas, but I do not feel disposed 
to disclose their home or the difficulties of obtaining them. 
In Manitoba the wapiti which always existed in the south-west part of the 
province were rapidly on the decrease until 1895, since which date they 
have increased again owing to a fair measure of protection. They live 
in dense forests and 44 muskeg,” and this forms a natural protection; but 
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