A NATIONAL SALMON PARK. 
By LIvINGSTON STONE. 
Who would have thought thirty years ago that the 
creation of a National Park in this country would be the 
means of rescuing the buffalo from extinction? Who 
thought then that anything was needed to rescue the 
buffalo? The buffalo roamed in myriads over the plains 
and mountain slopes of the central portions of the United 
States and were so innumerable that, with the exception 
of a few far-sighted persons, no one thought that this 
noble race of animals was even in danger. The supply 
seemed inexhaustible and the species at least safe from 
extinction. 
How soon we found out our mistake, and how suddenly 
the change came. The note of alarm had hardly been 
sounded long enough to be distinctly comprehended over 
the country, before the buffalo was gone—all gone prac- 
tically, except a few straggling survivors which, if they 
had not found refuge in Yellowstone Park, would have 
been gone too, long before this. The Yellowstone 
National Park saved them. It saved the wild race from 
extinction, and if nothing else should ever be accom- 
plished by the creation of the Park, this alone would, in 
the writer’s estimation, justify its existence. 
But if anyone had said thirty years ago, “Let us form 
a National Park in the buffalo region for a protection and 
refuge for the buffalo,” the proposition would have been 
laughed down from one end of the country to the other. 
It would have been thought a most ridiculous expedient, 
a scheme too foolish and crazy to be even seriously en- 
tertained. Nevertheless, the creation of the National 
Park has accomplished this very object, and has been, I 
think it may be safely said, the only means of accom- 
plishing this most important object, the preservation of 
the American buffalo. 
Now what this paper is going to propose will appear, 
