CALIFORNIA FISH AND GAME 143 



mendous struggle before he was finally dragged with ropes from car 

 to wagon crate. He continued to fight in his crate throughout the 

 trip to the Park, necessitating two stops to i-einforce it against the 

 effects of his kicking. The following day, the wagon reached the 

 enclosure that had been prepared for the elk on the Middle Fork of 

 the Kaweah River, where the two survivors were liberated. The old 

 bull had finally reached the limit of his endurance and he could 

 scarcely hobble from his crate. When liberated, he slowly staggered 

 to the river, where he drank, crossed to the far side to lay down on its 

 low bank. Here he was found in the same spot the next day — dead. 

 Thus the only animal to survive the original transplanting efforts was 

 the solitary bull calf. 



In the following year, different methods were employed which 

 proved much more successful. Instead of attempting to drive the 

 elk into a corral they were chased and roped by vaqueros. On October 

 15, 1905, 28 elk were thus captured near Buttonwillow. Three of these 

 died before shipment and of the 25 shipped, 20 reached Sequoia Park 

 alive, where they formed the nucleus of what was then thought to be 

 a promising new herd. 



There were no more attempts to move elk from the Buttonwillow 

 herd until 1914 when it had .increased considerably and the animals 

 were doing much damage, different methods were used this time ; a 

 large corral a quarter of a mile long was built in an alfalfa field 

 where the elk had been coming to feed nightly. Here 150 animals were 

 captured the night of October 11, 1914, but the next day, 90 fought 

 their way out. Three days later, 25 more were captured and during 

 the month 54 were distributed to seven localities in the State (Ever- 

 mann, California Fish and Game, vol. 1, pp. 85-96). 



In 1915, the same corral was used when 92 more elk were dis- 

 tributed to 14 additional places (Evermann, California Fish and 

 Game, vol. 2, pp. 70-77). Dr. Evermann estimated , that tfiere still 

 remained in Kern County between 350 and 400 animals. '' ,Jffi: most 

 instances, the animals did not do well in their new localities so no 

 further attempts were made to move elk from the Buttonwillow herd. 



The elk continued to raid agricultural crops in Kern County but 

 no complaints were heard regarding their depredations until Miller 

 and Lux subdivided their large holdings and sold many pieces of prop- 

 erty to small ranch operators comprising 40, 80 and 160-acre tracts. 

 These farmers complained considerably of damage caused by the ani- 

 mals but it was not until 1929 when their demands became insistent 

 that the agricultural commissioner's office in Kern County was peti- 

 tioned by the growers for relief. Recitations of damage which had 

 cost some growers their entire year's work were made, some of them 

 stating that if something were not done it would be necessary for them 

 to abandon their places. - * 



The agricultural commissioner took the matter up with the Fish 

 and Game Commission and demanded some action from them. A plan 

 was proposed by the Commission to remove the entire herd from Kern 

 County to public parks in other parts of the State, Los Angeles County 

 already having made a request for tliis band of elk. Wlien this was 

 announced publicly a storm of protest was made by the Elks lodge, 

 the Fish and Game Protective Association of Kern County, and many 



