ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
111 
The remaining four were absolutely in the best 
of health as far as I could make out, because 
they were eating well; that being about the 
only sign by which I could determine their 
condition. We left New Castle on May 20, 
and for six days it blew a regular gale. The 
seas were mountain high, and unfortunately 
the ship was more under water than over it, 
and certainly that did the animals no good. 
On the night of May 25, a huge sea came 
aboard, and rushing along the deck smashed 
into one of the platypus tanks, bent the metal 
neck and jammed it so effectively that the ani¬ 
mals were imprisoned in the sleeping quarters 
for that night. From then on that pair ate 
less and less, but they lived till the 5th and 
6th of June respectively, on which dates they 
died in a comparatively poor condition. 
Of the remaining two, one was fine and 
healthy but the second was just about medium, 
and I am sorry to state that on the 14th of 
June while the ship was at Honolulu, it also 
died. My feelings can readily be imagined. 
I would rather have lost all of my shipment 
of a very valuable cargo of birds, animals and 
reptiles. This was not because the platypus 
was worth more (far from it) but because it 
was my ambition to bring one alive to America. 
I am glad to say that good fortune eventually 
favored me, since on June 30, 1922, I landed in 
San Francisco with the first living platypus ever 
brought to America. 
I had to stay five days in San Francisco in 
order to procure a new supply of fresh worms 
and this I can assure the reader was not an 
easy matter. From Honolulu, I had sent two 
wireless messages to different parties to try 
and get some for me, but to my great dis¬ 
appointment on my arrival in San Francisco, 
I found that neither of them had been able to 
get any. After a lot of work, worry and ex¬ 
pense I managed to secure sufficient to last for 
the trip across the continent to New York. 
That trip was the hardest part of the long 
journey, for the shaking and the jolting of 
the train was a very great strain on the animal. 
When two days out from San Francisco, the 
platypus began to get hungry, for he used to 
get out whenever the train stopped and look 
for food, and so I was up day and night, and 
whenever the train stopped for any length of 
time I put water in the tank and also food, 
and that gave the animal a chance to eat a 
little. 
I was glad when we arrived in Chicago 
where I rested for two nights, and that gave 
the animal a fresh start. I started on the last 
lap on Tuesday night and on Thursday, July 
14, arrived in New York, both man and ani¬ 
mal completely tired out. 
After all, the undertaking was worth all the 
labor and expenditure that it had cost. I ac¬ 
complished the task that I had six years 
previously set out to perform. I not only had 
attained my object, but also the great addi¬ 
tional pleasure of knowing that the New York 
Zoological Park had the honor of being the 
first institution to place before its visitors a 
living platypus. 
THE VANISHING PRONG-HORNED 
ANTELOPE 
I F the people of the United States ever intend 
to save any of their prong-horned antelope 
from the total extermination that now is 
proceeding, they will have to set about it at 
once, and act quickly and decisively. It is a 
most serious matter, and it is no one-man job. 
It is up to the states, the nation, the man of the 
American people at large, and the working con¬ 
servationists, who are responsible in the order 
named. 
The Yellowstone Park herd, usually station¬ 
ary in population, has suffered a dreadful de¬ 
crease. Every spring the coyotes slaughter the 
majority of newly born young. The antelope 
of southeastern Oregon have been viciously at¬ 
tacked by alien (Spanish) sheep herders and 
seventy-eight of them were murdered in cold 
blood and left lying as they fell to discourage 
the plan under way to convert their range into 
an antelope preserve. The people of the 
United States and certain sheep-owners are due 
to come to a showdown very soon on game ques¬ 
tions. For instance, the Wool-Growers Asso¬ 
ciation of Idaho has, in annual convention, for¬ 
mally resolved to abolish the Idaho State Fish 
and Game Department. I am glad that step 
was taken; for it will hasten a decision of the 
question: Shall we destroy our forests and game 
in order to furnish free grass to a few sheep- 
owners, or shall the people protect the rights 
of posterity by referring the sheep back to the 
pastures of their owners ? 
The people of the United States must decide 
this question. Entirely aside from all game 
questions is the question of forest destruction 
by grazing sheep; and those interested are ad¬ 
vised to read a very important editorial article 
entitled “Sheep and Swine” by LeGrand T. 
Meyer in the May number of Field and Stream 
magazine. W. T. H. 
