294 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
Mr. Merrtam. The Elk society has wanted to transplant them to 
some nucleus near Salt Lake City. 
Mr. Brooks. That is for purposes of propagation? 
Mr. Merriam. I do not know, but it would undoubtedly result in 
the extinction of the species in a short time. The Yosemite commis- 
sioners have taken some move toward getting them into the Yosemite 
Park. It is where the snowfall is heavy, and these elk, not being 
mountain animals, would undoubtedly die in a short time. 
Mr. Scorr. Is it expected they will have to be fenced in all the time, 
for all future generations, or will they after a while become attached to 
their new habitat and stay there without a fence? 
Mr. Merriam. The probabilities are, where they find good feed— 
you will have to see that they are fed a little in the severest part of the 
winter—they will stay there after they get well acclimated. And the 
place we have selected in California is the most favorable one in Cali- 
fornia, so far as the ease of protection or care is concerned. It is ina 
forest reserve, where there are several competent rangers who are 
interested in the idea of having them there. 
The Cuarrman. The idea ot the Government taking this herd, and 
taking care of them in perpetuity 
Mr. Merriam. In a forest reserve, the same as is now done with the 
buffalo in Yosemite. 
Mr. Cuarrman. You do not have a fence down there? 
Mr. Merriam. Yes; they are fenced and fed. 
A Memper. The elk in the Yellowstone Park are not shut up while 
they are in the park; there is nothing to prevent their getting out of 
the park into the forest reserve? 
Mr. Merriam. The region they are in now is their natural home. 
Mr. Burieson. After they are fenced in, what does the Department 
propose to do with them, then? 
r. Merriam. Simply, you will have them there indefinitely. They 
will probably require some little feed in winter. 
Mr. Burxeson. Some one will have to be there all the time to look 
after them ¢ 
Mr. Merriam. It would be better; but it is not essential that some 
one be there. It would be better to have some one keep track of them, 
especially for the first year or two, to see that the fence was not broken 
down by falling trees, and so on, and to see that they were fed in 
case feed were needed. 
Mr. Ropery. Is there no way of getting citizens who raise elk and 
buffalo, and all that sort of thing, interested, so as to relieve the Gov- 
ernment from having to take care of them in the future? 
Mr. Merriam. A number of citizens have tried, more or less suc- 
cessfully, to breed buffalo and elk. Austin Corbin has both, and 
William C. Whitney, of New York, has both; and there are to-day a 
number of private preserves in which both buffalo and elk are kept. 
Mr. Roper. Could you not get some of these elk and put in there? 
Mr. Merriam. The trouble is that the climate is unfit for this 
eee which is almost a subtropical animal. It lives in the Tulare 
plain. 
Mr. Roper. How would the Gila Forest Reserve in New Mexico do? 
Mr. Merriam. It would do equally as well, possibly, as the one we 
have selected. 
Mr. Ropry. There is a tremendous forest reserve there, as big as a 
