36 GAME ANIMALS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



destruction of the fish and game found within the park, and 

 against their capture o^ destruction for the purpose of mer- 

 chandise or profit." 



Then again if the ivild buffalo must become extinct, why not 

 make preparations for it. An animal which in all essential respects 

 agrees so closely with the domestic cattle must surely prove of 

 vast importance to the farmer and stcx;k raiser, if its domestication 

 were but systematically attempted. We have at various times 

 seen in Montana, Nebraska and Kansas young buffaloes running 

 at large vidth the herds of domestic cattle, and in their actions 

 resembling in all respects their tame companions. With the cat- 

 tle they would wander off for days or weeks to distant parts of the 

 range, returning from time to time, and being quite as gentle and 

 docile as the other individuals of the herd. When these calves 

 approach maturity, what more natural than that the males should 

 be broken to the yoke ? The owner is not slow to avail himself 

 of their enormous strength, and teams of young bulls are by no 

 means uncommon in the vicinity of the buffalo range. Their 

 power and endurance are undoubted, though their temper is not, 

 perhaps, of the best. In fact it is said that if they desire to go in 

 any particular direction, or not to go at all, nothing that the 

 driver can say or do, will have the slightest effect in changing their 

 determination. Such little eccentricities as these, "however, would 

 no doubt be overcome after a generation or two of domestication, 

 or might be more immediately modified by a cross of domestic 

 blood. The old buffalo ranges are filling up with cattle, and by 

 the importation of blooded bulls the quality of the stock is being 

 continually improved. FrSm these plains a large portion of the 

 beef for Eastern and European consumption vrill ultimately be 

 derived. Before the buffalo wholly disappears some intelligent 

 effort should be made for inter-breeding on a large scale, so that 

 ere the last of the shaggy wild brutes has jriplded up his life there 

 shall have been infused into our western cattle the' hardy blood of 

 their obliterated relatives. 



Of the modes of capture practiced in hunting the Bison the two 

 most in vogue are still hunting, confined for the most part to that 

 great exterminator, the skin hunter, and hunting on horseback, the 

 legitimate and only sportsmanlike manner of pursuit. Owing to 



