bison range, and furnishes a perpetual supply of pure 

 water. There is no impure water anywhere in the range; 

 nor is there any possibility that impure water could flow 

 into the range. 



Mr. Loring's report was published by the Zoological 

 Society in its Tenth Annual Report ( 1905) , and promptly 

 laid before the First Session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, 

 in which Mr. Madison Grant, Secretary of the Zoological 

 Society, and Dr. T. S. Palmer, of the Biological Survey, 

 rendered most important service. Through the kind co- 

 operation of Hon. John F. Lacey, of Iowa, author of the 

 famous Lacey Bird Law; Hon. James W. Wadsworth, of 

 New York, Chairman of the House Committee on Agri- 

 culture; Hon. James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, 

 and other members of Congress interested in the perpetual 

 preservation of the Bison, an item was inserted in the 

 annual Agricultural appropriation bill, providing for an 

 appropriation of $15,000, with which to erect a substantial 

 steel-wire fence, seven feet six inches in height, entirely 

 around the proposed bison range, to erect suitable shelter- 

 sheds, a barn for the storage of hay, flood-gates across all 

 streams, and also to purchase such supplies of hay for use 

 during the first year as might be necessary. Without the 

 slightest opposition, either in the House of Representa- 

 tives or in the Senate, this item was passed with the 

 appropriation bill and became a law. Forthwith the 

 Secretary of Agriculture requested Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 

 Chief of the Forest Service, and thereby in sole charge 

 of the Wichita Game Reserve, to take all steps that might 

 be necessarv to carry the law into effect and fully meet the 

 conditions proposed by the New York Zoological Society. 



At the request of the Forestry Bureau, the Director of 

 the Zoological Park prepared plans and specifications for 

 the improvements to be made and desi2:ned a series of 

 corrals and sheds for the handling of the Bison herd when 

 not on the range. All these plans were approved by the 

 Forestrv Bureau, and forthwith a contract for the work 

 of erecting the fences, corrals, sheds and other buildings 

 was advertised. The lowest bid for the work was made by 

 Gurley & Paine, of Denton, Tex., and the Forestry Bureau 

 immediately executed a contract with that firm. Work 



59 



