introduce them into new countries have been almost uniformly
successful. Such has been the experience with the axis deer, the
Japanese and Pekin sikas, the red and the fallow deer of Europe, and
especially with the wapiti, or Rocky Mountain elk, and the Virginia
deer. While experiments with the foreign species named offer every
promise of success to the owners of American preserves, there are
obvious reasons for recommending the two native animals just mentioned
as best suited for the production of venison in the United States.

THE WAPITI, OR ROCKY MOUNTAIN ELK.

The Wapiti (_Cervus canadensis_), including two related species and a
geographic race, and known in America as the elk, is, next to the moose,
the largest of our deer. It was once abundant over the greater part of
the United States, whence its range extended northward to about latitude
60 deg. in the Peace River region of the interior of Canada. In the United
States the limits of its range eastward were the Adirondacks, western
New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania; southward it reaches the southern
Alleghenies, northern Texas, southern Mexico, and Arizona; and westward
the Pacific Ocean.

For the practical purposes of this bulletin all the forms of the wapiti
are treated as a single species. At the present time the range of these
animals has so far diminished that they occur only in a few scattered
localities outside of the Yellowstone National Park and the mountainous
country surrounding it, where large herds remain. Smaller herds still
occur in Colorado, western Montana, Idaho, eastern Oregon, Manitoba,
Alberta, British Columbia, and the coast mountains of Washington,
Oregon, and northwestern California. A band of the small California
valley elk still inhabits the southern part of the San Joaquin Valley.

The herds that summer in the Yellowstone National Park and in winter
spread southward and eastward in Wyoming are said to number about 30,000
head, and constitute the only large bands of this noble game animal that
are left. Although protected in their summer ranges and partially
safeguarded from destruction in winter by the State of Wyoming, there is
yet great danger that these herds may perish from lack of food in a
succession of severe winters. Partial provision for winter forage has
been made within the National Park, but the supply is inadequate for the
large number of animals. Further safeguards are needed to place the
Wyoming elk herds beyond th