The Last of the Buffalo 



buffalo skull half buried in the soil and 

 crumbling to decay. The deep trails once 

 trodden by the marching hosts are grass- 

 grown now, and fast filling up. When 

 these most enduring relics of a vanished 

 race shall have passed away, there will be 

 found, in all the limitless domain once 

 darkened by. their feeding herds, not one 

 trace of the American buffalo. 



POSTSCRIPT, 1896. 



Since this estimate was made, the num- 

 ber of buffalo in the Yellowstone Park has 

 seriously diminished. Up to May, 1894, 

 there had never been any law governing 

 this reservation. By the organic Park act 

 the Secretary of the Interior was author- 

 ized to establish regulations for the care 

 and government of the reservation, but no 

 power to enforce them was given him. 

 The troops detailed to protect the Park 

 had authority only to arrest and eject from 

 it violators of the regulations who could 

 at once return to the Park if they chose. 

 The lawless element in the neighborhood 

 of the reservation learned that offences 

 could not be punished ; and in the years 

 1892, 1893, an( ^ J ^94) poachers destroyed 

 great numbers of buffalo and other game. 

 In May, 1894, Congress passed a law es- 



260 



