EXTINCTION OF CERTAIN MAMMALS 145 



and skins being left to decompose on the ground. The figures for 1872, 

 1873 and 1874, partly from actual statistics and partly estimated, are 

 enlightening. One railroad in the three years carried out 459,453 skins, 

 10,793,350 pounds of bones (gathered partly from the "kills" of 

 former years) and only 2,250,400 pounds of meat. Inasmuch as the 

 animals mostly weighed from 800 to 1,400 pounds each, it is seen that 

 less than i per cent of the meat was utilized. It is estimated that the 

 total kill of bison by whites during the three years was 3,158,730, the 

 kill by Indians for the same period being only 390,000. Most of those 

 killed by the whites were destroyed for the skins alone, which so glutted 

 the markets that for some time the largest, fine bull skins brought only 

 $1.00 each at the railroad station, smaller cow skins bringing only 40 

 to 50 cents. Long after the great herds had been destroyed their bleach- 

 ing bones were gathered from the plains and shipped to market in 

 large quantities. 



On the Great Plains the pronghorn antelope was also very abundant. 

 Some observers declared that it was even more numerous than the 

 bison, though not so noticeable because of its less conspicuous colors 

 and smaller size. Like the bison, it has been so persistently hunted that 

 it has entirely disappeared over most of the vast region where it was 

 formerly so abundant, and where it still survives, its numbers are 

 insignificant as compared with its former abundance. As it does not 

 thrive or breed in captivity, and for its existence seems to require its 

 natural environment more than most animals do, the prospects for its 

 future do not seem very bright. 8 



Mountain sheep and mountain goats in the United States, except in 

 a few areas where all hunting is entirely prohibited, are now confined 

 to localities very difficult of access, and even where theoretically fully 

 protected by law they are often illegally and surreptitiously killed by 

 men who seem unable to resist the temptation to kill any wild animal 

 that comes within range of the rifles. 



When white men began the task of wresting North America from 

 the possession of its Indian inhabitants, deer were almost everywhere 

 common and in many regions plentiful. Now they have entirely disap- 

 peared from vast areas, even where the land has not been broken by 

 the plow, and in very few localities are they as abundant as they once 

 were. The elk, once widely and generally distributed over a large part 



8 Nelson, Status of the pronghorned antelope in 1922-1924, U. S. Dept. Agric. 

 Bull. No. 1346, 1925. 



