Wap′iti, a member of the stag, elk or deer family often but erroneously called the American Elk. It is now met with only in the far west, among the foot hills of the Rockies, and across the western boundary of the Canadian Dominion, where it has received its latinized name, Cervus Canadensis. It is a large animal, akin to the red deer of Europe, though standing higher, and with broad, spreading antlers, and frequently weighing 1,000 pounds. Formerly it largely furnished the Indians with food, together with ample hides for their lodge-tents, besides buckskin clothing. It is a grazer rather than a browser.
