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A Moose on the Loose.

Stalking the wapiti is no “whoopee.” Well might you ask: “What is wapiti and why?” To be inexact, a wapiti is a sort of a moose on the loose or a deer out of gear—otherwise it would never have a name like that. It is probably called a wapiti because of its woppity walk, and it runs like a stanza of modern verse. But although it looks soft, to boot, it is hard to shoot; which perhaps explains the following old hunting song. Nothing else can.

Wapiti wippety wok,
The moose ran up the rock,
The clock struck one
But the son-of-a-gun
Continued to “wapiti wok.”
Wapiti wippety woop,
The hunter's in the soup,
For he fell down
And broke his crown,
And the wapiti flew the coop.
Wapiti wapiti whip,
Wapitis never slip,
But hunters do
And lose their stew
Of wapiti whoopity whip.

The fun of shooting wapiti is that you don't. You stalk the wapiti on your breakfast for six or seven hours and the wapiti keeps ahead of the game. Then you become desperate and decide to shoot without seeing the whites of his eyes. Just as you raise your wapiti-waiver he remembers that he has got a date with a roe or a doe or a do-do, or something in the next parish, and wops off. As a “blood sport” brewing the Bovril has it all over wopping the wapiti.