Hunting in Many Lands 



railroad was to go. This was supposed to be a conces- 

 sion to public sentiment ; but it must have been thought 

 that the public were very easily deceived, for there was 

 really no concession at all, save to the railroad interests. 

 Instead of a right of way through a portion of the Park, 

 they now asked, and were offered by the committee, 

 the land itself. The Committee of the House proposed 

 that this land should be thrown out of the Park, and 

 any and all railroads be allowed to scramble for it. 

 The area thus doomed is situated north of the Yellow- 

 stone River, and constitutes one of the most attractive 

 portions of the Park. It includes the only great winter 

 range of the elk. In the winter there can be seen there 

 some 5,000 animals, and no one who has traveled over 

 this region in summer has failed to observe the enormous 

 number of shed horns, showing how extensively the 

 range is resorted to by this noble animal. Here too can 

 be found a* large band of antelope at all times, number- 

 ing about 500, and a smaller, but considerable, band of 

 mountain sheep. 



The friends of the Park succeeded in stopping the 

 proposed railroad legislation, but they could accomplish 

 nothing else in Congress. They had more success with 

 another branch of the Government. There was a statute 

 authorizing the President to set apart any part of the 

 public domain as a forest reservation. Taking advan- 

 tage of this, certain members of the Boone and Crockett 

 Club saw an opportunity of substantially obtaining the 

 enlargement of the Park which they had been vainly en- 

 deavoring to obtain from Congress. They laid the mat- 

 ter before General Noble, then Secretary of the Interior. 

 He recommended to President Harrison that the tract in 



410 



