30 eeport of the secretary. 



Extinction of the Buffalo. 



When the Yellowstone Park was organized it was believed that a 

 permanent place of refuge for the buffalo had been secured, and that 

 out of the natural increase of the hundreds then remaining represent- 

 ative herds would be preserved for future generations. It seems now 

 evident that the conditions in the Yellowstone region are such that the 

 extermination of the Government herd of buffalo may be anticipated, 

 and that it may be accomplished within a very short space of time. The 

 superintendent of the Park appears not to have adequate means for 

 their protection, and there are on the border plenty of persons whose 

 respect for law is insufficient to keep them from poaching when the 

 prize is a buffalo head or skin which will readily sell for several hun- 

 dreds of dollars. The temptation to these men seems to be irresistible, 

 and as the herd diminishes the value of the animals increases and the 

 difficulty of protection becomes constantly greater. 



Since, then, the extermination of the Yellowstone herd seems rapidly 

 approaching, something should at once be done, that this may not mean 

 the extinction of the Government control of the species, with the death 

 of the few specimens now in captivity. Only one course suggests itself 

 as completely efficient — transference of the great part of the now few 

 remaining animals to a region where they can be effectively protected 

 and increase normally under natural conditions, in which case the 

 bison need not vanish from the face of the earth. Two years ago there 

 were supposed to be 200 in the Yellowstone Park. The present esti- 

 mate is one-quarter of that number. The superintendent reports them 

 as being u constantly pursued," and in another year there may be none 

 left. If these animals, or a majority of them, can during the next few 

 months be transferred to the National Zoological Park at Washington, 

 which affords room and security, they will be safe, and their natural 

 increase in the future can be distributed by exchange with the zoolog- 

 ical gardens of the various parts of the United States, so that no large 

 city need be without its representatives of the great herds so often 

 referred to in our early history, and now a memory. 



Having in mind certain statements made in the public press with 

 regard to the slaughter of the bison within the Yellowstone National 

 Park by marauding poachers, I addressed to Capt. George S. Anderson, 

 U. S. A., the superintendent of that park, a letter of inquiry, to which 

 he made the following reply, which is of interest as supplementing the 

 information given in his annual report to the Secretary of the Interior, 

 and which, though properly belonging to a later report, I give here on 

 account of its urgent importance : 



December 12, 1895. 



I can give you no definite information about the bison in the Hayden 



Valley, near your corral. My scouting parties have reported the trails 



of several small bands leading in that direction, but as the snowfall 



has been light, they have not as yet been driven to that narrow area. 



