CHAPTER XV
WAPITI

UntTIL quite recently, if you asked anybody on this
continent about wapiti, the chances are that the person
from whom you were seeking information would not have
known what animal you were referring to. But if you had
used the word elk it would have been a different matter.
Of late years the use of the misnomer has been gradually
dying out, though it is still used to some extent.

Zoologists have not yet succeeded in dividing our
wapiti, and at the present time our only species is known
as the Cervus canadensis.

The areas in which wapiti are yet to be found in this
Province are confined to Vancouver Island, East Kootenay,
and part of the Lillooet district. From time to time
rumours of some having been seen in other places crop
up, but they have never been substantiated.

The wapiti in the Lillooet district are very limited in
number, and consist of a fair-sized increase from a small
herd which I turned out about six or seven years ago.
At that time it was my hope that further additions would
be made to the herd and that the country might eventually
become as well stocked as it used to be in former days.
The latest reports from the district with regard to the
increase in the stock are fairly optimistic.

On Vancouver Island, where not so many years ago
there used to be thousands of head of these fine beasts,
there are now possibly between two and three hundred,
and though they have been accorded a close season for
a number of years, there does not seem to be the increase
there should be. Across the Straits of Juan de Fuca

from Vancouver Island there are also some wapiti in the
169

”
by
5.

serine

Se ee

Vek sei: