in the Yukon
valley. Whenever man decides that the species has lived long enough, he
can quickly and easily exterminate it. It is one of the most picturesque
and interesting wild animals on this continent, and there is not the
slightest excuse for shooting it, save as a specimen of natural history.
Like the antelope, it is so unique as a natural curiosity that it
deserves to be taken out of the ranks of animals that are regularly
pursued as game.

THE ELK.--The story of the progressive extermination of the American
elk, or wapiti, covers practically the same territory as the tragedy of
the American bison--one-third of the mainland of North America. The
former range of the elk covered absolutely the garden ground of our
continent, omitting the arid region. Its boundary extended from central
Massachusetts to northern Georgia, southern Illinois, northern Texas and
central New Mexico, central Arizona, the whole Rocky Mountain region up
to the Peace River, and Manitoba. It skipped the arid country west of
the Rockies, but it embraced practically the whole Pacific slope from
central California to the north end of Vancouver Island. Mr. Seton
roughly calculated the former range of _canadensis_ at two and a half
million square miles, and adds: "We are safe, therefore, in believing
that in those days there may have been ten million head."

The range of the elk covered a magnificent domain. The map prepared by
Mr. Ernest T. Seton, after twenty years of research, is the last word on
the subject. It appears on page 43, Vol. I, of his great work, "Life
Histories of Northern Animals," and I have the permission of author and
publisher to reproduce it here, as an object lesson in wild-animal
extermination. Mr. Seton recognizes (for convenience, only?) four forms
of American elk, two of which, _C. nannodes_ and _occidentalis_, still
exist on the Pacific Coast. The fourth, _Cervus merriami_, was
undoubtedly a valid species. It lived in Arizona and New Mexico, but
became totally extinct near the beginning of the present century.

In 1909 Mr. Seton published in the work referred to above a remarkably
close estimate of the number of elk then alive in North America.
Recently, a rough count--the first ever made--of the elk in and around
the Yellowstone Park, revealed the real number of that largest
contingent. By taking those results, and Mr. Seton's figures for elk
outside the United States, we obtain the following very close
approximation