The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-06-20
A Mile of Starving Elk

, present will show that the elk still is
with us in numbers to satisfy even the
most hOggish sportsman:
Sixty thousand elk are wintering in
Jackson S Hole.
Thirty thousand of them are being
fed by the state.
Twenty-Five thousand of these 10000
| would starve but for this aid from man.
| Five thousand of them will starve in
! spite of it.
Twenty five thousand of them will be
saved by feeding.
Fifty-fve thousand elk will be alive
in Jackson's Hole when the snow
leaves.
Unless an epizootic should finally
break out among the herds and carry
them away by thousands, Wyoming
next fall will continue to be a para
disc for the hunter of big game.
The conditions as they exist near
! Jackson this last winter are without
precedent. 1t is doubtful if the eyes
of white man ever beheld as many elk
herded together in one locality. Pos
| sibly at some long past time, when elk
and buffalo roamed the prairie without
fear of smokeless powder or telescope
sights, Indians may have seen as many
or more, but since civilization set up
it's tepee near Jackson S lake it is GER
tain that no such numbers ever con-
gregated at single time for man IS in
spection.
The elk, unlike the departed buffalo,
does not love to live together in count
less multitudes Although, like all
members of the deer family, it is pos
sessed of the herding instinct, it pre-
fers to dwell in regiments rather than
in great armies. Under normal condi-
tions the elk finds a couple of thou
sands of its numbers about right for a
community, and this number forms a
band which picks its feeding grouno
and lives contentedly by itself. But
| when hard winter sets in all bands
set forth for the regions where the
snow is light and the feed plentiful,
| and in Wyoming this happens to be in
the Jackson Hole country along Flat
! creek.
| Jackson's Hole is a valley sixty
| miles long and ten miles wide, which
lies about sixty miles south of Yellow
| stone National park Completely sur
rounded by the Teton, Big Horn, and
eros Ventre mountains ranges, it is
| the one section in that region which is
well protected against the killing
weather of a Wyoming winter. Par
| ticularly it is protected in the south
ern end along Flat creek. The temper.
allure is higher there and the snowfall
| lighter than in any other section of the
state. AS result the country has be-
come the natural wintering ground OF
| the elk.
This winter was one of the hardest
| that Wyoming ever has had, and that
is saying much. All over the state
the snow lay four feet deep, save in
the southern end of Jackson s Hole
where foot or eighteen inches was
the average. The cold and the snow
driving them from their chosen feed
ing grounds in the mountains to the
north and west, the various big band:
of elk one by one gave up the fight
to remain in their old winter home:
and struck out to the southwark, to
ward the protected hay country along
Flat creek
Over the long, cold trails, breaking
through breast-deep snow in the foot
hills, dying by scores in prairie biz,
yards, they came by the thousands, al
heading for the same destination
Through the snow choked mountain
passes leading into the valley they
fought their way, thin, weak, and starv
ing, painting for sight of the valley