THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 527 



sequent cannibalism, a party of twenty-nine Oree Indians was reduced 

 to three in the winter of 1886.* Of the Fort Chippewyan Indians, be- 

 tween twenty and thirty starved to death last winter, and the death of 

 many more was hastened by waDt of food and by famine diseases. Many 

 other Indians — Crees, Beavers, and Ghippewyans — at almost all points 

 where there are missions or trading posts, would certainly have starved 

 to death but for the help given them by the traders and missionaries at 

 those places. It is now declared by the signers of the memorial that 

 scores of families, having lost their heads by starvation, are now per- 

 fectly helpless, and during the coming winter must either starve to 

 death or eat one another unless help comes. Heart-rending stories of 

 suffering and cannibalism continue to come in from what was once the 

 buffalo plains. 



If ever thoughtless people were punished for their reckless improvi- 

 dence, the Indians and half-breeds of the Northwest Territory are now 

 paying the penalty for the wasteful slaughter of the buffalo a few short 

 years ago. The buffalo is his own avenger, to an extent his remorseless 

 slayers little dreamed he ever could be. 



VIII. Preservation of the Species from Absolute Extinction. 



There is reason to fear that unless the United States Government 

 takes the matter in hand and makes a special effort to prevent it, the 

 pure-blood bison will be lost irretrievably through mixture with do- 

 mestic breeds and through in-and-in breeding. 



The fate of the Yellowstone Park herd is, to say the least, highly un- 

 certain. A distinguished Senator, who is deeply interested in legisla- 

 tion for the protection of the National Park reservation, has declared 

 that the pressure from railway corporations, which are seeking a foot-hold 

 in the park, has become so great and so aggressive that he fears the 

 park will " eventually be broken up." In any such event, the destruc- 

 tion of the herd of park buffaloes would be one of the very first results. 

 If the park is properly maintained, however, it is to be hoped that the 

 buffaloes now in it will remain there and increase indefinitely. 



As yet there are only two captive buffaloes in the possession of the 

 Government, viz, those in the Department of Living Animals of the Na- 

 tional Museum, presented by Hon. E. G. Blackford, of New York. The 

 buffaloes now in the Zoological Gardens of the country are but few in 

 number, and unless special pains be taken to prevent it, by means of 

 judicious exchanges, from time to time, these will rapidly deteriorate in 

 size, and within a comparatively short time run out entirely, through 

 continued in-and-in breediug. It is said that even the wild aurochs in 

 the forests of Lithuania are decreasing in size and in number from this 

 cause. 



* It was the. Cree Indians who used to practice impounding buffaloes, slaughtering 

 a penful of two hundred head at a time with most fiendish glee, and leaving all but 

 the very choicest of the meat to putrefy. 



