Hunting in Many Lands 



rugged country, affording a seemingly secure asylum. 

 For a long time these buffalo remained comparatively 

 safe. In the summer it would have been of no use to 

 slaughter them for their heads and hides. In the winter 

 the snow was so deep and their haunts so remote as to 

 render it well nigh impossible to pack heads or hides 

 out to a market. But a desperate man was found to 

 take desperate chances. The trouble came to the Park 

 from the mining camp of Cooke. A notorious poacher 

 named Howell made it his headquarters. Its prox- 

 imity to the northeast boundary of the Park made it a 

 convenient point from which to conduct his raids and to 

 which he might convey his booty. If he killed even a 

 single buffalo, and safely packed out of the Park its head 

 or hide, he was sure of realizing a large sum. If he was 

 captured while making the attempt, he knew he was safe 

 from punishment, and that there was no penalty, even if 

 there was an offense. A less lawless man might have 

 indulged a flexible conscience with the idea that, as there 

 was no punishment, there was no crime. A similar view 

 of ethics had been indulged in by a prominent member 

 of the gospel, who had killed game in the Park, and 

 sought extenuation on the ground that he had not vio- 

 lated any law. But Howell was not a man who sought 

 to justify his actions; it was sufficient for him that he 

 incurred no risk. The time he selected for his deed of 

 destruction he thought the most propitious for covering 

 up his tracks. His operations were conducted in the 

 most tempestuous weather in that most tempestuous 

 month, March, in the year 1894. The snow then was 

 deepest, and Howell felt there would be little chance of 

 interference by scouting or other parties. Eluding the 



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