National Parks. 



217 



NATIONAL PARKS. 



Extracts from Report of the Acting Superintendent of the 

 Yellowstone National Park. (1911.) 



The aggregate number of persons making park trips during the 

 season of 1911 was 23,054. 



The experiment of capturing antelope in the park and trans- 

 ferring them by express to the national bison preserve in Mon- 

 tana and to the Wichita game preserve in Oklahoma, for which 

 funds were supplied by the Boone and Crockett Club, was quite 

 successful. 



Practically all of the deer that remain in the park during 

 the winter are found within a few miles of Fort Yellowstone, 

 where they are fed hay, and both white-tailed and black-tailed 

 deer become very tame, many of them eating from the hand. 



Elk in certain portions of the park are very numerous, and 

 are numbered by thousands both in winter and summer. Last 

 winter the deep snows drove them down in large herds from 

 the latter part of November on, and many of them drifted into 

 Montana, where they did much damage to hay stacks, fields, and 

 fences on the ranches near the park. 



Moose are frequently seen in the southeast, southwest, and 

 northwest portions of the park, but usually in wild and un- 

 frequented spots and never near human habitation. 



The wild herd of Buffalo has been seen several times, usually 

 in the Pelican Creek Valley. The largest number seen at any 

 one time was twenty-seven. 



The bears seem to be increasing — at least they have been 

 very plentiful during the past summer around the hotels and 

 camps. They are very tame. During the summer two griz- 

 zlies and three black bears, becoming dangerous to life and 

 property, were killed. In one or two instances men who have 

 become too bold with bear have been attacked and severely 

 injured, usually by a mother bear that thought she was de- 

 fending her cubs, but investigation of cases of this kind usually 

 result in a conclusion that the bear is not entirely to blame. 



The small flock of mountain sheep that winters on the slopes 

 of Mount Everts and in Gardiner Canon seems to be thriving. 

 Hay is fed to these animals in winter, when they become very 

 tame and are seen at close quarters. As yet they have not 

 come down for the winter, but several small bands have been 

 seen in the mountains, accompanied by a number of lambs, which 

 indicates a fair increase. 



