American Big-Game Hunting 



climate and an uncongenial environment, or 

 whether the young calves have been attacked 

 by predatory animals, has never been satis- 

 factorily determined. Dangers which would 

 scarcely befall them in an open country 

 might in a timbered region tend to keep 

 down their numbers. They occasionally 

 wander beyond the Park borders into Idaho 

 and Montana with the first fall of snow, re- 

 turning to their mountain homes with the ap- 

 proach of spring. In 1884 I estimated the 

 buffalo in the Park at 200; since that time 

 they have gradually increased, and have 

 probably doubled in number. In the winter 

 of 1891-92 the grazing-ground in Hayden 

 Valley was visited by a snowshoe party, who 

 counted the scattered bands and took photo- 

 graphs of several groups. These groups 

 were generally small, and each contained a 

 goodly number of calves. They numbered 

 by actual count nearly 300, but there is no 

 means of knowing what proportion of the 

 Park buffalo were then gathered here. 



Bears of all kinds that inhabit the northern 

 Rocky Mountains are found in the Park. 

 The natural conditions of the country — a 

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