| Show Elk Once Ranged Over er Most of Country Almost Exterminated by Early arly Settlers The magnificent American elk once ranged pretty well all over that part of the continent now occupied occupied occupied pied by the United States The early settlers quickly exterminated it in its original r range east of the Mississippi Mississippi Mis Mis- and toward the close of the Nineteenth century it was being rapidly driven to its last in the western states The elk isn't very hard to hunt Its hide was a commercially commercially commercially com com- valuable leather commodity commod commod- ity its head makes an attractive trophy and at one time there was wasa a heavy traffic in elks' elks teeth and many a noble specimen was killed merely for Its teeth writes Ding Darling in the Washington Star The slaughter of elk in wholesale quantities was easy when the snow was deep because they stick in compact herds a habit that exposed the buffalo to virtual extermination There were elk in New England inthe in inthe inthe the early days and they survived in Michigan Wisconsin Illinois Indiana Indiana Indiana In In- diana Ohio and Pennsylvania until the settlers wiped them out In the present range of the elk winter feed is the great problem The protected valley lands have been appropriated for or domestic herds which monopolize the old nat ural l winter feeding grounds of the elk Here and there notably in inthe inthe inthe the Jackson Hole country the nucleus nucleus nucleus nu nu- nu- nu cleus of the Yellowstone elk Herd lierd is cared for through the winter months by artificial feeding and pasturage on the elk refuge maintained by the United States biological survey and the state te of ot Wyoming in co opera co-opera opera tion These provisions provisions' plus those of the National Park service will insure the elk against extinction but they arc are entirely inadequate to increase the existing population The elk is one of the outstanding victims of civilization A hundred million is what naturalists figure the elk population to have been in inthis inthis inthis this country when the white man began to take charge |
