336 



ANIMAL LIFE 



FIG. 379. The mammoth, the ancestor of the elephant. From a painting by 

 Knight in the American Museum of Natural History. 



Railroad brought the hide hunter to the grazing grounds, 

 and by 1883 scarcely a thousand buffalo were in existence. 

 Congress has many times failed to do its duty in enacting 

 proper laws for the preservation of our animal wealth. 



Until a half century ago moose were abundant in the 

 Adirondacks and many other wooded regions in the north- 

 ern states, but the ceaseless slaughter continuing for years 

 unchecked has exterminated the species in most of the 

 states except Maine, Wyoming, Idaho, and Minnesota. 

 The prong-horned antelope has been saved from utter 

 destruction in most of the states it inhabits by the enact- 

 ment of proper laws. In Routt County, Colorado, it is 

 estimated that only about fifty antelope survive, while 

 fifteen years ago there were nearly fifty thousand. In the 



