302 CAMP-FIRES OF A NATURALIST. 



These were in such condition that they told nothing 

 either of the appearance or the peculiarities or habits 

 of the animal as he is seen in his mountain home. 

 So much hardship attends the hunting of this most 

 rare of all the North American fauna that it is with 

 the greatest difficulty that a single specimen can be 

 obtained, and then the additional labour of getting 

 the game down the almost inaccessible mountain 

 which the animal has chosen for its habitat makes 

 the securing of a single perfect example an event 

 worthy of being chronicled in the scientific journals 

 of the world. The thirty-four complete specimens of 

 this animal secured by Professor Dyche will go far to- 

 wards aiding the future naturalists in their studies. 



While all the expeditions of the naturalist were for 

 the purpose of collecting examples of the larger 

 mammals of the continent, he never lost sight of the 

 fact that he visited places where he was likely to 

 find rare forms of smaller mammals and birds, and 

 he secured thousands of them which, with his larger 

 specimens, form a collection that for excellence can- 

 not be equalled in the whole world. 



A list must of necessity be incomplete, but a par- 

 tial enumeration of the rarest forms will give the 

 reader some idea of the wonderful work that has been 

 accomplished during these expeditions. The Ameri- 

 can bison is now practically extinct as a wild animal. 

 The few remaining herds are so hedged about by law 

 that they are practically domesticated. Fourteen 

 complete specimens of these were secured from the 

 last survivors of the wild herd. Of antelope he has 

 thirty-five specimens, of bear fourteen, mountain lions 



