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 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.
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Total, for all America. 54,850