OF WILD ANIMALS 297 



lungs of the reclining bull. With the mad energy of pent-up 

 and superheated fury, the assassin delivered stab after stab 

 into the unprotected side of the helpless victim, and before 

 Apache could gain his feet he had been gored many times. 

 He lived only a few minutes. 



It was foul murder, fully premeditated; and had Black 

 Beauty been my personal property, he would have been 

 executed for the crime, without any objections, or motions, or 

 appeals, or far-fetched certificates of unreasonable doubt. 



During the past twenty years a number of persons have 

 been treacherously murdered by animals they had fed and 

 protected. One of the most deplorable of these tragedies 

 occurred late in 1906, near Montclair, New Jersey. Mr. 

 Herbert Bradley was the victim. While walking through his 

 deer park, he was wantonly attacked by a white-tailed buck 

 and murdered on the spot. At Helena, Montana, a strong 

 man armed with a pitchfork was killed by a bull elk. There 

 have been several other fatalities from elk. 



The greater number of such crimes as the above have been 

 committed by members of the Deer Family (deer, elk, moose 

 and caribou). The hollow-horned ruminants seem to be 

 different. I believe that toward their keepers the bison, 

 buffaloes and wild cattle entertain a certain measure of respect 

 that in members of the Deer Family often is totally absent. 

 But there are exceptions; and a very sad and notable case was 

 the murder of Richard W. Rock, of Henry's Lake, Idaho, 

 in 1903. 



Dick Rock was a stalwart ranchman in the prime of life, 

 who possessed a great fondness for big-game animals. He 

 lived not far from the western boundry of the Yellowstone 

 Park. He liked to rope elk and moose in winter, and haul 

 them on sleds to his ranch; to catch mountain goats or mule 

 deer for exhibition; and to breed buffaloes. His finest bull 

 buffalo, named Indian, was one of his favorites, and was 

 broken to ride! Scores of times Rock rode him around the 



