The Wapiti.—Next in size to the moose, and in many ways the grandest of the deer tribe not only of America, but of the world, is the wapiti or American elk. In language not pedantic, W. A. Perry speaks as follows of this noble animal: "Monarch of the wilderness, lord of the mountain, king of the plain, what hunter who has sought thee in thy pine-embowered home whose heart-beat does not quicken and whose eye does not brighten at the mention of thy name! For with it comes the recollection of boundless prairies, grass-robed and flower-decked; of pine-clad, snow-capped mountains; of sweet breezes, gentle melodies, and grand trophies. I once heard an Indian speak his last words, and they were these: 'To-morrow, in the Spirit Land, again shall I chase the wapiti.'"
Although the wapiti is one of the typical animals of the boreal region, in its primitive freedom it overstepped the boundaries of the life-zones which science seeks to define, and marched southward far into the austral region. It was found at the coming of the white man in nearly all parts of what is now the United States, and extended from the table-land of north-central Mexico northward to the fifty-sixth or fifty-seventh degree of latitude, or about the position of Lake Athabasca. Its northern range thus overlapped the region inhabited by the moose and caribou, while at the south it was exposed to the attacks of the jaguar. As civilization advanced across the continent, the wapiti slowly retreated, and in diminished numbers it now lives in the wildest portion of the Pacific mountains to the north of Snake River and the Columbia. It is still abundant in the Olympic Mountains of Washington, the
Bitter Root Mountains of Idaho, and in Montana. A large herd finds protection in the Yellowstone National Park, but in winter, when migrating southward, is exposed to most destructive attacks from both white and Indian hunters. Among the mountains of the mainland in British Columbia and the central and more rugged portion of Vancouver Island it is still the "king of the wilderness."
The male wapiti at maturity is some 7 or 8 feet high at the shoulders, and lifts its wide-spreading antlers fully 11 feet from the ground. Its weight is from 800 to possibly 1,100 pounds. The colour is, in general, dark brown, with lighter shades on the thighs, and changing to black beneath the body; there are stripes of light brown on either side of the tail which join an area of similar colour beneath the hind legs; the colour varies, however, at different seasons and in different individuals. The head is small, well formed, and beautiful. The carriage of the animal and its bold, undaunted mien, when roaming its native mountains and glens, is all and more than poets ascribe to the stag of the Old World.
Stringent laws are now on the statute-books for the protection of the wapiti, both in the United States and Canada, but the difficulties in the way of enforcing them in regions remote from civilization are great. The wapiti does not extend into the most forbidding wilds of the far north, where its safety as a species, as in the case of the moose, would be insured, and besides, congregates in bands, which facilitates its slaughter. Its range has been steadily decreasing since the coming of the white man, and particularly since the introduction of firearms among the Indians, and its extinction, outside of reservations and parks, is to be expected in the near future.
The Smaller Deer.—Besides the caribou, moose, and wapiti, there are half a dozen or more members of the deer family (Cervidæ) represented in the fauna of North America. Of these the Virginia deer is best known, as its range embraces the most thickly settled portion of the continent between Maine and the Gulf States, and from the Atlantic coast to the Rocky Mountains. In spite of indiscriminate
slaughter and poorly enforced game laws, this species has not only held its own, but in recent years has greatly increased in number in certain localities. To the west of the range of the Virginia deer and merging with it in part, in the Pacific mountain region occur the white-tailed, black-tailed mule, and sonora deer, and perhaps other species. The combined ranges of these several species embrace the larger part of the continent and extend from eastern Canada to the Pacific coast, and from southern Alaska to Panama.
Next to the deer comes the antelope, formerly so common on the Great plateaus. This, the pronghorn antelope, as it is usually termed, is about the size of the domestic sheep, but with long slim legs, and is a most active and exceedingly graceful animal. Its true home is on the treeless plateaus east of the Rocky Mountains, but its range extends from Saskatchewan to northern Mexico, and from the Prairie plains to the Cascade Mountains in Oregon. It has steadily decreased in number, especially during the last quarter of a century, and is now no longer seen in the large bands that were formerly an attractive feature of the sea-like plains over which it travels seemingly with the freedom of a bird.
The animals thus far referred to have their range determined mainly by the broader features of climate, but not in a conspicuous way by the relief of surface. They inhabit mountains, plateaus, and plains alike, as is shown most conspicuously in the case of the wapiti, which formerly grazed in large herds on the prairies of the Mississippi Valley, and has been killed at an elevation of over 10,000 feet in the Pacific mountains. Not so, however, with the mountain-climbers whose names follow, which have their chosen "station" on the mountains at timber-line and ascend as far above that horizon as vegetation grows.
The Bighorn or Mountain-Sheep.—The bighorn, of which three species are now recognised, has its home in the Pacific mountains from northern Mexico to central and northern Alaska. Its vertical range is also great, as it has been seen on the precipitous walls of the Grand Cañon of