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FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



255 



Some of them were rather shy, others 

 probably those which, as Major Pitcher 

 informed me, had spent the winter 

 there were as tame as barn-yard fowls. 



Just before reaching the post th'e 

 Major took me into the big field where 

 Buffalo Jones had some Texas and Flat 

 Head Lake buffalo bulls and cows, which 

 he was tending with solicitous care. The 

 original stock of buffalo in the park have 

 now been reduced to fifteen or twenty 

 individuals, and the intention is to try 

 to mix them with the score of buffalo 

 which have been purchased out of the 

 Flat Head Lake and Texas Panhandle 

 herds. The buffalo were put within a 

 wire fence, which, when it was built, 

 was found to have included both black- 

 tail and white-tail deer. A bull elk was 

 also put in with them at one time, he 

 having met with some accident which 

 made the Major and Buffalo Jones bring 

 him in to doctor him. When he recov- 

 ered his health he became very cross. 

 Not only would he attack men, but also 

 buffalo, even the old and surly master 

 bull, thumping them savagely with his 

 antlers if they did anything to which he 

 objected. 



When I reached the post and dis- 

 mounted at the Major's house I sup- 

 posed my experiences with wild beasts 

 for the day were ended, but this was an 

 error. The quarters of the officers and 

 men and the various hotel buildings, 

 stables, residences of the civilian offi- 

 cials, etc., almost completely surrounded 

 the big parade ground at the post, near 

 the middle of which stands the flag-pole, 

 while the gun used for morning and 

 evening salutes is well off to one side. 

 There are large gaps between some of 

 the buildings, and Major Pitcher in- 

 formed me that throughout the winter 

 he had been leaving alfalfa on the pa- 

 rade ground, and that numbers of black- 

 tail deer had been in the habit of visit- 

 ing it every day, sometimes as many as 

 seventy being on the parade ground at 

 once. As springtime came on the num- 

 bers diminished. However, in mid- 

 afternoon, while I was writing in my 

 room in Major Pitcher's house, on look- 

 ing out of the window I saw five deer 

 on the parade ground. They were as 

 tame as so many Alderney cows, and 



when I walked out I got up to within 

 twenty yards of them without difficulty. 

 It was most amusing to see them as the 

 time approached for the sunset gun to 

 be fired. The notes of the trumpeter 

 attracted their attention at once. They 

 all looked at him eagerly. One then 

 resumed fbeding, and paid no attention 

 whatever either to the bugle, the gun, 

 or the flag. The other four, however, 

 watched the preparations for firing the 

 gun with an intent gaze, and at the 

 sound of the report gave two or three 

 jumps, then, instantly wheeling, looked 

 up at the flag as it came down. This 

 they seemed to regard as something 

 rather more suspicious than the gun, 

 and they remained very much on the 

 alert until the ceremony was over. 

 Once it was finished, they resumed feed- 

 ing as if nothing had happened. Before 

 it was dark they trotted away from the 

 parade ground back to the mountains. 



The next day we rode off to the Yel- 

 lowstone River, camping some miles 

 below Cottonwood Creek. It was a 

 very pleasant camp. Major Pitcher, an 

 old friend, had a first-class pack train, 

 so that we were as comfortable as pos- 

 sible, and on such a trip there could be 

 no pleasanter or more interesting com- 

 panion than John Burroughs " Oom 

 John," as we soon grew to call him. 

 Where our tents were pitched the bot- 

 tom of the valley was narrow, the 

 mountains rising steep and cliff-broken 

 on either side. There were quite a 

 number of black-tail in the valley, 

 which were tame and unsuspicious, al- 

 though not nearly so much so as those 

 in the immediate neighborhood of the 

 Mammoth Hot Springs. One mid-after- 

 noon three of them swam across the 

 river a hundred yards above our camp. 

 But the characteristic animals of the 

 region were the elk the wapiti. They 

 were certainly more numerous than 

 when I was last through the park, 

 twelve years before. 



In the summer the elk spread all over 

 the interior of the park. As winter ap- 

 proaches they divide, some going north 

 and others south. The southern band, 

 which, at a guess, may possibly include 

 ten thousand individuals, winter out of 

 the park, for the most part in Jackson's 



