of the wild elk alive in North America in 1912:

LOCALITY NUMBER AUTHORITY

Yellowstone Park and vicinity 47,000 U.S. Biological Survey.
Idaho (permanently), 600
Washington 1,200 Game Warden Chris. Morgenroth.
Oregon 500
California 400
New York, Adirondacks 400 State Conservation Commission.
Minnesota 50 E.T. Seton.
Vancouver Island 2,000 E.T. Seton.
British Columbia (S.-E.) 200 E.T. Seton.
Alberta 1,000 E.T. Seton.
Saskatchewan 500 E.T. Seton
In various Parks and Zoos 1,000 E.T. Seton.
------
Total, for all America. 54,850

In 1905, a herd of twenty of the so-called dwarf elk of the San Joaquin
Valley, California, were taken to the Sequoia National Park, and placed
in a fenced range that had been established for it on the Kaweah River.

The extermination of the wapiti began with the settlement of the
American colonies. Naturally, the largest animals were the ones most
eagerly sought by the meat-hungry pioneers, and the elk and bison were
the first game species to disappear. The colonists believed in the
survival of the fittest, and we are glad that they did. The one thing
that a hungry pioneer cannot withstand is--temptation--in a form that
embraces five hundred pounds of succulent flesh. And let it not be
supposed that in the eastern states there were only a few elk. The
Pennsylvania salt licks were crowded with them, and the early writers
describe them as existing in "immense bands" and "great numbers."

Of course it is impossible for wild animals of great size to exist in
countries that are covered with farms, villages and people. Under such
conditions the wild and the tame cannot harmonize. It is a fact,
however, that elk could exist and thrive in every national forest and
national park in our country, and also on uncountable hundreds of
thousands of rough, wild, timbered hills and mountains such as exist in
probably twenty-five different states. There is no reason, except man's
short-sighted greed and foolishness, why there are not to-day one
hundred thousand elk living in the Allegheny Mountains, furnishing each
year fifty thousand three-year-old males as free food for the