BUFFALO. 35 



unmindful of the helpless young, who would soon fall an eas)- prey 

 to wolf or coyote, were it not guarded by the bulls, who fight 

 fiercely for the safety of their offspring. 



The following story is related by an army officer, and bears 

 upon this point: While riding into camp alone one night, he 

 observed some six or eight Buffalo bulls on the prairie arranged 

 in a compact circle with heads facing outward ; all around, and at 

 a little distance from the ring, sat numbers of grey wolves eying 

 the Bison. At a loss to account for this singular sight, he drew 

 up to watch their movements. Soon the Buffalo separated, and 

 now a young calf, evidently newly born, was seen in centre of the 

 group. They trotted away some hundred yards, meanwhile pro- 

 tecting the object of their solicitude, on all sides, the wolves mov- 

 ing along with them. Soon the young one becoming fatigued, lay 

 down, when the bulls stopped again, forming the same impassable 

 barrier against their ferocious enemies. Thus they escorted their 

 ward back to the main herd. 



When feeding, the cows and calves occupy the middle space, 

 the bulls forming as it were the circumference of an enclosing cir- 

 cle. When attacked, however, they lose all control of themselves 

 and dash hither and thither in every direction. If governmental 

 protection can be obtained at all for the Bisons, it should at least 

 save them from wicked and indiscriminate slaughter during the 

 spring and summer, while they are breeding and rearing their 

 young. But with regard to buffalo protection another and better 

 method for saving the few remaining herds from utter annihilation 

 may be suggested ; namely, by forming a buffalo reservation. 



In the Yellowstone National Park we have the necessary ter- 

 ritory, and it is already stocked ; but the skin hunter, that ruthless 

 destroyer of game, must be kept at a distance, if we would hope 

 to save this species. This section of territory is by law forbidden 

 ground to the hunter, and could the statute be enforced, the buffalo, 

 which at present exist in considerable numbers in this region, 

 would have an opportunity to increase, and might endure there 

 long after their recent prairie range has become a region of smil- 

 ing wheat farms and well stocked cattle ranches. The bill setting 

 aside the Yellowstone Park as a Government reservation says that 

 the Secretary of the Interior shall ''provide against the wanton 



