EXPERIMENT IN ANIMAL PRESERVATION 173 
the park was doubtless made easy by the owner’s 
indifference to expense ; ^80,000 were laid out on 
the purchase of the land and the costly fencing alone ; 
but Mr. Corbin was fortunate in being able to obtain 
twenty-five bison from the few survivors of the wild 
herds to start his “ buffalo ranch.” Those bred in 
the paddocks of England during the last fifteen years 
have steadily deteriorated in size and stamina, the 
cows growing yearly more “ weedy ” and less prolific ; 
but there must be some source, not generally known, 
from which they can still be bought, though at a 
high price. Cross, the Liverpool dealer, is said to 
have sold ten cows two years ago, and those in Mr. 
Corbin’s preserve show a disposition to increase and 
multiply. The history of the Chillingham and 
Chartley wild cattle, which, though inbred for genera- 
tions, remain vigorous and prolific when allowed to 
live their natural life in parks not a tenth of the area 
of that in which the bison now roam, gives good 
ground for hoping that the existence of the bison 
may now be prolonged for such time as American 
sentiment may think fit to preserve them. Besides 
the bison, the original stock in the Corbin Park 
includes sixty wapiti deer, or “ elk,” as they are called 
throughout North America; seventy deer, probably 
the black-tailed deer of the Rocky Mountains ; six 
cariboo, the American reindeer ; six of the rare 
prong-horned antelopes ; twelve moose, or elk proper ; 
eighteen wild boars, and by this time, it is hoped, a 
colony of beavers. Of these, the moose, the ante- 
