Theodore Roosevelt (18581919). Hunting Trips of a Ranchman.
1885. STILL-HUNTING ELK ON THE MOUNTAINS FTER the buffalo the
elk are the first animals to disappear from a country when it is
settled. This arises from their size and consequent
conspicuousness, and the eagerness with which they are followed
by hunters; and also because of their gregariousness and their
occasional fits of stupid panic during whose continuance hunters
can now and then work great slaughter in a herd. Five years ago
elk were abundant in the valley of the Little Missouri, and in
fall were found wandering in great bands of over a hundred
individuals each. But they have now vanished completely, except
that one or two may still lurk in some of the most remote and
broken places, where there are deep, wooded ravines. Formerly
the elk were plentiful all over the plains, coming down into
them in great bands during the fall months and traversing their
entire extent. But the incoming of hunters and cattle-men has
driven them off the ground as co