IN A WILD ANIMAL REPUBLIC 253 



be taken by our rich government to protect the 

 survivors here. 

 We ask why 



THE HERD OF YELLOWSTONE BUFFALO 



has been so sadly reduced, and we are told that 

 grizzlies and hard winters have destroyed them. 

 For thousands of years grizzlies and hard winters 

 were features of the buffalo country, and yet the 

 buffaloes thrived and waxed strong. 



Buffalo heads are in great demand. Fine ones 

 command extravagant prices. Buffalo skins are 

 eagerly sought by museums and wealthy people and 

 I was told that in the neighborhood of the Park 

 purchasers had paid as high as $2.00 a pound for 

 buffalo steak. The very bones of these animals 

 are in demand, for anatomical specimens for mu- 

 seums ; hence a wild buffalo is looked on as a small 

 fortune walking around without an owner. Is it 

 any wonder, then, that skin hunters, adventurers, 

 and settlers have turned poachers at the sight of 

 these poor beasts? These people have no more 

 heart than an automobile to restrain them, and the 

 slight penalties for poaching were easily evaded. 



In 1892 Captain George Alexander reported a 

 herd of 400 bison in the Park, 20 per cent, of which 

 were yearlings, and in 1900 there were but twenty- 

 nine ! 



Among the many strange sights one sees in the 

 Park are the hundreds of swallows twittering and 

 flying around the cliff overlooking the boiling sul- 



