The Naturalist in Vancouver Island and British Columbia Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 Excerpt: ...of the Cascade Mountains, on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, reaching an altitude in summer of 7,000 feet above the sea. I saw herds of these elks in the Klamath district; they grow to a large size in these rich pastures, attaining a weight of from 500 to 700 pounds. The antlers are enormous in the adult animal, measuring six feet from tip to tip, and eleven inches in circumference above the burr. I scarcely think there are sufficient grounds for making this Oregon Elk a distinct species; it seems to me to be a well-marked variety only of the wapiti common to the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. The wapiti on the Oregon I use the term Elk, for the Wapiti, in its local sense. Strictly, it applies only to the Moose. CARIBOU, AND WHITE-TAILED DEER. 183 coast grows much larger, and differs in colour from the animal found on the inland mountains; but climatal differences are quite sufficient to account for it. The habits of the wapiti are too well known to need any description. Woodland Caribou Reindeer (Rangifer Caribou, Aud. and Bach.) The Caribou inhabits the high ridges of the Cascade Mountains, the Galton range, and western slope of the Rocky Mountains. I have no positive proof of its existence north of the Fraser, but I think there can be but little doubt, if any, that its range is through the entire mountain district, extending into Russian America. Virginian Deer ( Cervus Virginianus, Bodd); White-tailed Deer (Cervus leucurus, Douglas).--Whether these are really distinct species I cannot say, but the small grey deer so common on the plains about Nesqually and in the timber belting the Sumass prairies, I believe to be Cervus leucurus. I obtained two specimens on the Diamond Tree pass, a high mountain ridge ascending sharply up from the Sumass..