Arm 18, 1894.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
* Forest and Stream's 99 Yellowstone 
Park Game Exploration. 
No. 12. 
GAME IN THE SEGREGATION STRIP. 
The Winter Home of the Elk. 
On Saturday, March 31, the first day after our arrival 
at Yancey's, we found ourselves tired enough to spend 
the day in loafing and resting up. Billy fished out a 
bandage from a hidden pocket, and showed the ability to 
bandage an ankle as well as a surgeon. I learned then 
that he had taken the precaution to carry along a band- 
age or so, and also a few screws, which latter, however, 
he explained were intended for use in case of a broken 
ski, and not of a broken bone. 
The next day was Sunday by the calendar. It was ob- 
served by a general cleaning up. After that we con- 
cluded not to wa ; t longer, but to go on out after the elk. 
Woody kindly acted as guide, and took us to a point 
about a mile and a half northwest of Yancey's, to a high 
butte, or rather a high rock wall overhanging the Yellow- 
stone Valley. From this vantage ground we saw a 
spectacle truly remarkable and magnificent, one hardly 
to be duplicated in America or in the world to-day. 
Below us lay the Yellowstone, even at that depth of 
distance clearly visible. Its color was a brilliant green, 
and its re ular foaming on the rock ridges which crossed 
its path as it came out of the sharp defile at our right 
had all the apparent sub- 
stance and rigidity of 
solid substance. Down 
to the Yellowstone ran 
a sheer drop of white, 
and all the forest for 
miles to right and left of 
us was clad in white, this 
being the north slope of 
the mountain. Acro-s 
the Yellowstone, between 
the Cottonwood and the 
Roaring Fork and beyond 
them, there stretched a 
vast and rugged picture 
of wild mountain scenery, 
broken by canon and crag 
and defile, by long gentle 
slope and. by wooded 
depths at whose profun- 
dity we could only guess. 
All the colors of winter 
were there, the intense 
white of the snow, the 
varying blackness of the 
forests, but added to these 
were a hundred of the 
reds and browns of 
mother earth uncovered. 
This was the south slope 
of the range at which we 
were now looking, and 
sun and winds combined 
to strip many of the 
slopes of snow. Appar- 
ently half the surface was 
bare or nearly bare of 
gnow, one could see great 
streaks of bare brown 
ground running away up 
on many of the ridges, 
without apparent cause. 
The character of the 
ground was very rough 
and broken, and how the 
Yellowstone was to find 
its way through the wil- 
derness of mo untains that - 
crswded in on the left 
was matter of vague con- 
jecture to us as we stood 
and looked across the great peaks beyond the stream and 
to the westward. A tremendous and impressive scene it 
was of wild nature at rest. One can remember few spots 
in the Park where he would more keenly feel that he had 
intruded where he did not belong. This feeling was the 
more heightened by the way we came upon the spot, the 
forest being dense up to the very edge of the great wall 
on which we stood. 
The Elk were in Hundreds. 
But not alone the physical characteristics of the country 
entitled it to our wondering admiration. The picture 
was not a picture alone. It was replete with life. 
Below us we saw some dark figures outlined against 
the snow. They moved and we looked more closely. A 
dozen elk came out from behind the point of timber in 
which they stood, and looked curiously up at us on our 
lofty perch, but they did not take alarm. Then beyond 
the river, on the bare ground, we saw another group, 
and another, and another, and then dozens of others. In 
singles, in pairs, in groups, in small bands, the elk were 
feeding in hundreds and hundreds, scattered all over a 
strip of country five miles across. .The whole further 
bank of the Yellowstone, here laid open b afore us as 
though by special plan, was alive with elk. In all my 
life I had nevpr seen so much game at one sight. For the 
first time in the Park I felt an absolute thrill of amaze- 
ment and delight at seeing the great animals in such 
numbers, in such content, in such apparent security and 
freedom from suspicion. There are few hunters who 
have seen enough of the more fertile game countries of 
the now barren West to remember any such sight as this. 
There is no other part of America where such a sight will 
ever be seen again. Here, protected by the Park, these 
noble animals had chosen out a ground where nature had 
provided opportunity to feed throughout the winter, and 
had gathered in by hundreds and hundreds, as if pur- 
posely to go on show for those who wished to see them. 
The Forest and Stream luck held. We had found the 
elk just where we thought to find them, and in numbers 
which aet at rest all theorizing as to where or what was 
the Wiftter range of to§ ©Ik of these mountains of the 
Park. Here was their range, below us, before us, around, 
on every side of us, and the elk were there, there not 
only in hundreds, but absolutely in thousands. 
Woody said nothing, but sat down with his back against 
a tree, and with the long and powerfixl telescope we had 
along began to sweep the opposite hillsides over carefully 
and slowly. Once in a while a low exclamation escaped 
him. and he would say, "There are four hundred in that 
band," or "there they are again, over bv the bare peak," 
or "just take a look at this bunch." We took turns in 
taking looks, both with the telescope and the field glasses, 
and before we got through we were all more or less ex- 
cited. Billy po nted out a big bunch he had located be- 
fore we came out on the point of rocks, and with the 
glass we studied these long and carefully. They were 
lying down, feeding, moving about, quite at home and 
unconscious of our being within three miles of them, and 
cognizant of their every movement as well as though the 
distance were not more than a quarter of a mile. In 
these might be 250 elk at least. How many there really 
were we could not tell with any exactness, for they were 
continually coming into and going out of view on the 
strip of bare brown ground over which they were feed- 
ing. How many elk lay unseen on those miles of brown 
bills and valleys no one can tell. How many were on the 
opposite sides of the ridges from us or in canons and val- 
leys into which we could not see, no one of course could 
tell. "You can only see one-half of this country at one 
time," said Woody, "that is, the side of the hill to you." 
We located one great band of 500 to 800 elk, as nearly as 
we could estimate the number, and guessed roughly that 
we must have in view 1,500 elk in scattered bunches at 
distances from half a mile to three miles. In all, seeing 
only "half the country," we concluded that there must 
ELK IN THE SNOW -YELLOWSTONE PARK. 
Photo by Haynes. 
be 2,000 elk at least within reaching distance of the eye 
at one time before us on the north bank of the Yellow- 
stone al one. Doubtless there were 3,000 or 4,000 on that 
ground, could we have seen them all. In stating these 
figures I am taking the estimate of Woody and Billy, both 
used to seeing large numbers of game, and not given to 
emotional estimates. 
It was on the Segregation Strip. 
It was the purpose of the Forest and Stream expedi- 
tion in coming into this part of the Park to look into the 
game supply fairly, not bringing to the task any precon- 
ceived ideas whatever, and not seeking to uphold any 
theory, although there was not the slightest occasion to 
doubt the report of the Park superintendent. Capt. An- 
derson, which assigned large bodies of elk to this very 
section of the Park, and which was accordingly reviled 
by the local Montana press, or rather the Livingston press, 
as being untrue and unreliable. The Livingston press 
would have it appear that there is no game in that part 
of the Park which they want cut off. I purposely do not 
have Capt. Anderson's report before me as I write this, 
but I can state very briefly what we actually found over 
here in the segregation strip (i. p., that part which it is 
sought to cut off from the Park). We found a rough 
country, not a smooth one. one of the wildest and most 
broken character. We found a country only half covered 
with snow. In some parts, especially the upper flats, the 
snow was 5, 8, perhaps 10ft. deep, though many of the 
ridges were nearly bare. On the lower levels, on the 
south slopes, in the creek and river valleys, on the tops of 
the ridges and often over great patches and wide areas of 
the mountain sides, the snow did not lie so deep, but 
could be easily pawed through by the game. For miles, I 
will say, there were hills and stretches of broken ground 
which were entirely brown and bare where the sun struck 
them or where the wind had sweep. In the valley of the 
Yellowstone, on the north slopes of the hills, in all the 
canons and the deep rock country, of course, the snow 
was deep and heavy. 
We found, in our first morning out from Yancey's, 
taking; the estimate of experienced mountaineers, than 
whom there are no better in Amprira, 2,000 elk in sight 
at once, and probably 4 000 or 5,000 in nil within reach 
of the eye had aH been visible by reason of the lay of the 
ground. We saw every one of those 2.000 elk on the north 
side of the Yellowstone, wholly on ground that would be 
cut off from the Park under the proposed segregation act. 
We found as many more elk that same day, partly on 
the south side of the Yellowstone and along the East 
Fork, partly on and partly off the segregation strip. On 
the second day following we saw probably 800 to 1,000 
elk, the majority of which were on the proposed segrega- 
tion strip. In two days we actually saw somewhere 
between 5,000 and 10,000 elk. We can not claim that we 
saw half of all that were on the country. We do not 
claim to ha ve examined all of the line of the proposed 
railway. Had we done so I think we should have seen 
more than twice as many elk as we did see. If you 
draw a circle about Yancey's, with 10 miles radius, you 
will take in 10,000 to 15,000 elk this winter certainly, 
perhaps twice that number. If you make the radius five 
miles I will guarantee you take in ov^r 5,000, probably 
8,000. If you make it four miles you will take in over 
3,000 elk certainly. I dn not consider these figures guess 
work, but accurate so far as accuracy is obtainable by 
actual investigation in the winter time, and by unbiased 
and skillful estimate. I do not offer the estimate as 
mine alone, but I saw all the game that the others saw, 
and I will testify on honor or on oath that these state- 
ments are accurate and fair to the best of my knowledge 
and belief. 
These Are Facts. 
Now, gentlemen wish to build a railroad through 
exactly this portion of the Park. Has this story up till 
now spoken of seeing any such numbers of game in any 
other part of the Park? 
No, for the game winters 
nowhere else in such 
numbers. Gentlemen 
ask us to believe that 
building this road (if it 
could be built) through 
exactly this part of the 
Park, through exactly 
this winter range, 
through exactly these 
great bands of game, 
"will not destroy or dis- 
turb the wild game of 
the Park." Shall we be- 
lieve them? Not until 
the American public is 
made up altogether of 
idiots and focls. We went 
into this country in the 
winter, and studied it, 
and I know what I am 
talking about absolutely, 
and I am glad that for 
this paper I can say these 
things out publicly and 
unhesitatingly, and in 
such way as does not 
admit of any successful 
or trustworthy denial. 
These are not assump- 
tions, but facts. They 
are not surmises, but 
facts. They are not one- 
sided assertions, but facts. 
On these substantiated 
facts let the public make 
up its opinion as to the 
harmlessness of a railway 
through the heart of the 
greatest game preserve 
on earth. Let the public 
ask the friends of segre- 
gation for their facts, and 
not for their assertions, 
or their hopes, or their 
guesses about the facts. 
Then they can turn to 
Forest and Stream, 
which says that the elk 
are there now, but would 
be there no longer if this road wore built. Build the 
road, and then there would be fcr boundary not the 
wild wall of mountains which we s"w to the north of 
the Yellowstone— so desolate and forbidding that even 
now it is thought there may be a few head of bison left 
over beyond the Bison Peak— but a narrow public path 
of accessible grades, of no barriers insurmountable to the 
traveler by foot, of no obstacles to prevent digression on 
either hand. The hunter now is fenced out of the winter 
range. The railroad would lead 'him direct to the h-art 
of it. The first year the road went through, 10,000 elk 
would be butchered. The next year, 1,000. The next 
year, there would be no elk in this part of the Yellow- 
stone, or the bare ground north of the Yellowstone, or 
the open valley of tne East Fork. Driven back into the 
big snow country, they would have escaped the skin 
hunters only to starve and perish by hundreds, as even 
now they every year starve and perish by hundreds in the 
less favored and more inclement parts of the Park. 
Let the elk alone, they can take care of themselves. 
Let the Park alone, it can take care of itself. In the name 
of humanity, of decency, in the name of the honor of 
the American people, let the Park and its inestimable 
treasures, animate and inanimate, alone forever, a heri- 
tage of growing value to this people and to the world. 
A Vivid Panorama. 
Our morning with the elk made up an experience 
unique and vivid in every particular. In the great men- 
tal panorama which will during my life remain the 
greatest treasure resultant upon this winter journey, there 
will, I fancy, long continue bright and sharp this picture 
of the white and brown hills sloping down to the Yellow- 
stone, dotted with their thousand heads of game. I shall 
long see, I hope, the keen green of the Yellowstone, its 
transverse ribs of white, and the fathomless depths ot the 
snow in the black-sided canons. Not less impressive was 
the reverse of this picture, for as we tvirned to descend the 
great hills up whioh we had laboriously climbed, there 
burst upon us the full glory of the mountain scene which 
we had had at our baoks as we came up, eager only to 
find the elk 8/head, We were perhaps at a third of the 
