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170 WAPITI

Olympic Mountains in the State of Washington, which,
according to the United States authorities, are worthy
of being classed as a separate species. They resemble
those of Vancouver Island in every way, even, I believe,
in colour and shape of horns. The Vancouver Island
wapiti do not average as large horns as those of the
mainland, and while their shape is very similar, there is
perhaps a greater persistency to cup-shaped tops. In
colour, which is very likely due simply to local staining
conditions, there is a marked variation; those of the
island having a very distinct reddish, sometimes almost
crimson, tinge, instead of the dark sepia colour of those
farther east. To such an extent is this variation in
colour marked that a set of horns from Vancouver Island
can be recognized without fail.

While the Vancouver Island wapiti are not nearly so
numerous as they were, those in East Kootenay have
multiplied in the last fifteen years, though it is very
questionable whether, under present conditions, this happy
state of affairs is continuing. When the Government of
this Province first took up the protection of game in
earnest only a few scattered wapiti were left in this district.
This would not have been the case if they had been looked
after soon enough, as that part of the country apparently
escaped the heavy mortality that occurred among this
species everywhere else on the mainland. Their almost
total extermination was principally brought about by
Indians, and particularly so by the Stoneys of Alberta.
These Indians, having killed off all the game in their own
locality to the east of the Rockies, began to make extended
‘ncursions into this Province to assist our own Indians—
who, though willing enough to slaughter everything they
could, were not so expert in hunting or so numerous—
in cleaning up the fine stock of game of all sorts that
then existed. In their efforts, at any rate as far as wapiti
were concerned, the Stoneys just about accomplished
their seeming object. It used to be the Stoneys’ boast
that when they had travelled over any area of country
for the purpose of hunting, all game was non-existent in