440 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 63 



wild bison were known to exist" (Anon,, 1955). Corbin procured his 

 original stock prior to 1890, "three or four in Wyoming, and a dozen 

 in Manitoba, etc." In 1888 he purchased six male and six female 

 calves from Col. Charles J. "Buifalo" Jones, who had just acquired 

 them from the Sam I. Bedson herd at Winnipeg. In 1892 he purchased 

 two male and eight female 5-year-olds, at $1,000 each, from Jones; 

 these were captured in 1888 from the last wild herd in the Texas Pan- 

 handle (Garretson, 1938 : 219). By 1898 Corbin had about 75, "prob- 

 ably the largest herd in the world" (Champollion, 1889). They 

 avoided the forested tracts of the preserve, foraged in the cleared lands 

 in summer, and were fed on hay in the pens at the Central Station in 

 winter. The bison herd gradually increased, and by 1908 numbered 

 about 165. 



In the fall of 1896 Corbin loaned 25 bison to the City of New York. 

 They were shipped, in the care of Billie Morrison, to a 100-acre pasture 

 in Van Cortlandt Park. Presently two or three sickened and died, 

 presumably from gastroenteritis. In 1897 the balance of the herd, 

 except for two that were left in New York, were returned to the Corbin 

 Preserve. Three or four died en route, and the rest of the group were 

 kept isolated from the original herd. However, they never recovered 

 completely, and ultimately nearly the whole group died, despite the 

 attentions of Morrison and Stockwell (Garretson, 1938 : 76) . 



Starting in 1898, many bison were sold or donated for various pur- 

 poses, both in this country and abroad. The bull "Cleveland" was 

 sold about 1898 to William C. Whitney for his October Mountain 

 preserve near Lenox, Mass.; this was one of the original wild 

 calves captured by Jones in the Texas Panhandle in 1888, but he proved 

 to be very vicious. In 1901 Whitney presented him to the New York 

 Zoological Park, which later contributed to the nucleus herds on the 

 Wichita (Oklahoma) and Wind Cave (South Dakota) National Game 

 Preserves. In 1911 Corbin sold a male and a female, and in 1914 a 

 bull and a heifer, to Gen. Harry C. Trexler for his game preserve near 

 Allentown, Pa. 



In 1905 the American Bison Society, an active and effective organi- 

 zation in the preservation of bison and other North American big 

 game, was established in New York; Ernest Harold Baynes, long 

 affiliated with Corbin, was the first Secretary (B. B. Holden, 1959) . 

 Under the impetus of this Society, and with the active interest of 

 Theodore Roosevelt, William T. Hornaday, and others. Congress 

 appropriated funds for the Wichita National Wildlife Refuge (1906) , 

 the National Bison Range in Montana (1908), and the Wind Cave 

 National Park (1913) . To these Government- owned herds Corbin con- 

 tributed by frequent and generous donations. In 1910, a bull and two 

 cows were given to the National Bison Range herd. In 1915, three 

 males and three females were offered for establishing a nucleus herd 



