SECOND BIENNIAL STATEMENT 83 



As a game-protecting state, uninfluenced by the work of 

 the United States government, Wyoming stands today far 

 toward the rear. But for the National Park she would have 

 neither elk nor moose. Says E. W. Nelson, Chief of the Bio- 

 logical Survey, in "American Forestry" for March, 1917, 

 page 143 : 



"But for the creation of the Yellowstone National Park, 

 and the guardianship assumed by the Federal Government 

 over its wild life, there is no reason to doubt that the two 

 great elk herds now centering there, and containing some 

 40,000 of these splendid animals, would to a great extent 

 have shared the fate of their kind elsewhere." 



Until 1894, the protection of the big game in the Yellow- 

 stone Park depended wholly upon the laws of Wyoming; 

 but those laws were so poor, and so inadequate, that a herd 

 of 300 wild bison permanently inhabiting in the Park was 

 slaughtered by poachers down to about 30 head. And even 

 when Howell was caught in the act of skinning five of the 

 last cows, he could not be punished, save by confiscating his 

 cayuse, his saddle and his rifle, — a proceeding which he 

 laughed to scorn. The game laws of Wyoming were a brok- 

 en stick on which to lean. If that bison herd had been ade- 

 quately protected by the "state" laws of Wyoming, the Yel- 

 lowstone Park now would contain probably 2,500 head! 



But it is impossible within these limits to treat the short- 

 comings and the game losses of each western state in ex- 

 tenso. We must shorten the work. Attention is called to 

 the following notes : 



Elk. — As a killable game animal, the elk has been exter- 

 minated, under state lavjs, throughout 13 of the western 

 states that it inhabited in our own times. Those states are : 

 Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Ore- 

 gon, Washington, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma. 



During the past five years twenty states have procured 

 live elk from a federal game sanctuary, the Yellowstone 



