project has not been given up. The Society endeavored to render 

 Mr. Owen some assistance and there is considerable correspondence 

 covering this matter. 



For several years the Society has been actively considering what 

 to do with the surplus bison and other game in the National Parks 

 of this country. The situation has also arisen in Canada. Our 

 Government has given from the Yellowstone National Park herd to 

 several municipalities a number of bison for exhibition purposes. I 

 am in receipt of a letter from Mr. Horace M. Albright, Superintendent 

 of the Yellowstone Park, stating that legislation has been included 

 in the Interior Department Appropriation Bill now pending in Con- 

 gress to give authority for the selling or otherwise disposing of the 

 surplus elk, buffalo, beaver and predatory animals, especially in the 

 Yellowstone Park. The Interior Department Appropriation Act for 

 1924 contains the following paragraph: 



"Hereafter the Secretary of the Interior is authorized, in his discretion and 

 under regulations to be prescribed by him, to give surplus elk, buffalo, bear, 

 beaver and predatory animals inhabiting Yellowstone Park to Federal, State, 

 County, and municipal authorities for preserves, zoos, zoological gardens and 

 parks: Provided, that the said Secretary may sell or otherwise dispose of the 

 surplus buffalo of the Yellowstone National Park herd, and all moneys received 

 from the sale of any such surplus buffalo shall be deposited in the Treasury of 

 the United States as miscellaneous receipts." 



In a recent letter Mr. Albright further says upon this subject: 



"With reference to the responsibility of killing male buffalo in the United 

 States I can speak with authority so far as the Yellowstone Park herd is con- 

 cerned and state that the time is not far distant when a great many of our male 

 buffalo will have to be eliminated. The situation here is not at all satisfactory, 

 and I expect within five years we will have to be doing the same thing that the 

 Canadian Government is doing at the present time. I do not see how this can 

 be avoided in any large buffalo herd, particularly when we consider that no 

 buffalo herd can live in this civilized age under ideal conditions, that is, conditions 

 to which they were naturally adapted. For instance, we have observed that so 

 far as the mating season is concerned in the separation of males and females, 

 the Yellowstone herd has gotten very far away from natural conditions with the 

 result that calves are born at all times of the year. This situation has many 

 angles that I will explain to you when I see you personally tluring the coming 

 winter." 



It is a matter of gratification that the buffalo are becoming so 

 numerous in some of the Government herds that it presently will 

 become necessary to treat the surplus bulls as so many domestic cattle. 



On May 26, 1922, your President received a letter from Dr. E. 

 W. Nelson, saying in effect that a tract of some 18.86 acres of land, 

 belonging to an Indian, was about to be sold. This land is traversed 

 by the road leading to the main gate of the Montana Bison Range, 

 and is so situated that an undesirable owner or tenant might make 

 serious trouble. Unfortunately, the land could not be purchased by 

 the Government until it was authorized by an Act of Congress, which 

 would be exceedingly difficult to obtain promptly. Mr. Nelson, there- 

 fore, asked if the Bison Society could raise $600 to purchase this land 

 for the purpose of safeguarding this entrance of the Bison range. 



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