THE BUFFALO 



103 



is impossible for any one to distinguish a differ- 

 ence. 



The future of the Buffalo depends solely upon 

 the owners of the great private game preserves, 

 such as that of the late Austin Corbin, and Mr. 

 James J. Hill. If the perpetuation of the species 

 depended solely upon the efforts possible in zoo- 

 logical gardens and parks, within twenty-five 

 years the species would become extinct. Even 

 in a range of twenty acres, the largest in any zoo- 

 logical institution, the Buffalo becomes a slug- 

 gish animal, and rapidly deteriorates from the 

 vigorous standard of the wild or semi-wild stock. 

 In the close confinement of a thirty-acre zoologi- 

 cal garden, the loss in physique is still greater. 

 Mr. Arthur E. Brown, Superintendent of the 

 Philadelphia Zoological Garden, and a very close 

 observer, has drawn the writer's attention to the 

 striking difference in size and back outline be- 

 tween a Buffalo born on a great range, and an- 

 other of the same age born of a line of closely 

 confined ancestors. 



Interesting as have been the experiments 

 made by Mr. C. J. Jones and others in the cross- 

 breeding of Buffaloes and domestic cattle, it is 

 now quite time that all such experiments should 

 cease. It has been proven conclusively that it is 

 impossible to introduce and maintain a tangible 

 strain of buffalo blood into the mass of western 

 range cattle. This is admitted with great regret, 

 but inasmuch as it is absolutely true, the existing 

 herds of Buffalo should not be further vitiated 

 and degraded by the presence in them of ani- 

 mals of impure blood. 



In an adult animal, the presence of domestic 

 blood is readily perceived in the lower hump, 

 longer tail, shorter pelage on the head, neck, 

 shoulders and fore legs, and the longer and more 

 slender horns. In the calf under one year of age, 

 it is not always possible for even the best judges 

 to detect a strain of domestic blood. In the 

 year 1900, a male calf was inspected and passed 

 by four men who were with good reason consid- 

 ered qualified judges of the points of Buffaloes; 

 but two years later that animal stood forth un- 

 mistakably as a cross-breed, one-quarter domestic. 



In judging Buffaloes, the finest animals are 

 those with the greatest height of hump, heaviest 

 and longest pelage in front of the armpit, shortest 

 tails, and horns curving with the shortest radius. 



If the recent action of the national government 



toward establishing a herd in the Yellowstone 

 Park is liberally and intelligently sustained by 

 future administrations, it will go far toward per- 

 petuating the species for a century. But it 

 should be conceded at the beginning that the 

 effort can succeed only by giving the animals a 

 great area to roam over at will. In addition to 

 that herd, however, another should immediately 

 be established in the Plains region, in a fenced 

 reservation of not less than 100 square miles, with 

 choice grazing, water and ravine shelters. It is 

 only by such methods that the American people 

 can in a small measure atone for the annihila- 

 tion of the great herds between 1870 and 1885, 

 and the subsequent brutal slaughter by poachers 

 of the Yellowstone Park herd of three hundred 

 head. 



On March 1, 1903, Dr. Frank Baker com- 

 pleted a count of all the pure-blood captive 

 Buffaloes alive at that date, with the following 

 result : 



Captive Buffaloes: ' 



In the United States :■ 969 



In Canada 41 



In Europe 109 



1,119 



Wild Buffaloes (estimated): 



In the United States 34 



In Canada 600 634 



1,753 

 The Musk-Ox. 



The Musk-Oxi is an inhabitant of the frozen 

 North, the land of snow and ice, of howhng 

 storms and treeless desolation. In 1901, Com- 

 mander Peary killed a specimen within half a 

 mile of the most northerly point of land in the 

 world, — the northeastern extremity of Greenland. 



How this animal finds food of any kind during 

 the dark and terrible arctic winter, is yet one of 

 the secrets of Nature. After making all possible 

 allowance for the grass, willow and paxifrage 

 obtainable by pawing through the snow, and on 

 ridge-crests that are swept bare by the blizzards, 

 it is still impossible to explain how the Musk- 

 Ox herds find sufficient food in winter, not only 

 to sustain Ufe, but actually to be well-fed. 



I gaze upon each hving Musk-Ox to be seen 

 ^ O'vi-bos mos-cha'tus. 



