calves
1 " Thompson Falls,
       Montana 40 —­ 2 O
1 " Stephensville,
       Montana 36 —­ 1 1
1 " Deer Lodge, Montana 40 24 2 O
1 " Hamilton, Montana 40 —­ O O
1 " Mt.  Vernon,
       Washington 46 4 days; 7 O
                                       unloaded &
                                       fed twice
                          —–­ —­ —
                          305 27 9

The total deaths in transit and after, of 36 elk out of 305, amounted to 11.4 per cent.

All those shipped to Montana points were shipped by the state of Montana.

In order to provide adequate winter grazing grounds for the Yellowstone-Wyoming elk, it seems imperative that the national government should expend between $30,000 and $40,000 in buying back from ranchmen certain areas in the Jackson valley, particularly a tract known as “the swamp,” and others on the surrounding foothills where the herds annually go to graze in winter, A measure to render this possible was presented to Congress in the winter of 1912, and without opposition an appropriation of $45,000 was made.

The splendid photographs of the elk herds that recently have been made by S.N.  Leek, of Jackson Hole, clearly reveal the fact that the herds now consist chiefly of cows, calves, yearlings and young bulls with small antlers.  In one photograph showing about twenty-five hundred elk, there are not visible even half a dozen pairs of antlers that belong to adult bulls.  There should be a hundred!  This condition means that the best bulls, with the finest heads, are constantly being selected and killed by sportsmen and others who want their heads; and the young, immature bulls are left to do the breeding that alone will sustain the species.

[Illustration:  HUNGRY ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING Part of a Herd of About 2,500 Head, being fed on hay, in the Winter of 1910-11 Note the Absence of Adult Bulls.  Copyright, 1911, by S.N.  Leek]

It is a well-known principle in stock-breeding that sires should be fully adult, of maximum strength, and in the prime of life.  No stockbreeder in his senses ever thinks of breeding from a youthful, immature sire.  The result would be weak offspring not up to the standard.

This inexorable law of inheritance and transmission is just as much a law for the elk, moose and deer of North America as it is for domestic cattle and horses.  If the present conditions in the Wyoming elk herds continue to prevail for several generations, as sure as time goes on we shall see a marked deterioration in the size and antlers of the elk.

If the foundation principles of stock-breeding are correct, then it is impossible to maintain any large-mammal species at its zenith of size, strength and virility by continuous breeding of the young and immature males.  By some sportsmen it is believed that through long-continued killing of the finest and largest males, the red deer of Europe have been growing smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer evidence.