Elk

a genus of the deer family. The American elk or wapiti is really a large deer,--the largest and finest deer in North America. It is chestnut in summer and grayish in winter. It corresponds in the west to the caribou in the east. It is a stately animal nearly as large as the moose. It attains a live weight of 1,000 pounds. The antlers attain a spread of thirty to fifty inches. It has small, shapely legs, and hoofs fitted for hard ground. Like the deer it sheds its antlers annually. Its original range corresponded with that of the buffalo. It was once found from Virginia to Wisconsin and westward, but it is now nearly extinct. Possibly 20,000 still find shelter in and about the Yellowstone National Park. In the winter season they migrate southward to graze in the valleys of Jackson's Hole. There are small herds in the Olympia Mountains of Washington, in Oregon, California, Colorado, Montana, Idaho, and Manitoba. Fortunately, elk do well in parks. A herd of sixty-two has been set free in the Adirondacks. Mr. W. C. Whitney built up a large herd near Lenox, Massachusetts. Twenty or more American cities have herds in their parks. The real American elk are the moose and the caribou--flat-antlered animals. The remains of a huge elk have been found in the peat bogs of Ireland. The tips of its enormous antlers are eleven feet apart. See Deer