134 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 28, 1911. 
Boone and Crockett Club Report. 
At the annual meeting of the Boone and 
Crockett Club, held Tuesday, Jan. 24, at 
the University Club in New York City, the 
Game Preservation Committee presented its re¬ 
port This committee was appointed at the 
annual meeting of 1910, its chairman being J. 
Walter Wood. The other members of the com¬ 
mittee are Dr. Charles H. Townsend Geo 
Shiras, 3d, Charles Sheldon, W. Redmond 
Cross’ and George Bird Grinnell. The com¬ 
mittee recommends the appointment of a regu¬ 
lar standing committee to deal with the sub¬ 
jects of game preservation and game refuges, 
and points out various ways in which such 
standing committee may advantageously work. 
Its report of the work of the committee for 
1910 tells what was done to assist the passage 
of the bill establishing the Glacier National 
Park, introduced some years ago by Senator 
T Id. Carter, of Montana, a member of the 
club; of efforts made to secure from Mexico 
and Texas a herd of antelope for introduction 
on the Wichita Game Preserve, and of other 
efforts now being made to secure antelope for 
the Wichita and the Montana buffalo preserves. 
The committee aided in securing from Con¬ 
gress a small increase of appropriation for the 
care of the fenced herd of buffalo in the Yel¬ 
lowstone Park, which now numbers something 
over 120 head. No action was taken in relation 
to proposed changes of deer law in New York 
State. The committee urges that the influence 
of the club should be used in behalf of the 
Appalachian Reserve bill, prepared by Hon. 
J. W. Weeks, which has passed the House of 
Representatives and is to be voted on by the 
Senate February 15th next. It expresses the 
view that excessive killing of northern game 
by wealthy hunters who visit the Arctic for 
sport should be frowned on, while advocating 
the killing of game, in whatever numbers their 
needs may call for, by travelers, natives, miners 
and explorers. 
The G ame Situation. 
Reporting on the game situation, it is pointed 
out that most of the domesticated buffalo in 
Montana have been sold and delivered to the 
Canadian ‘Government. The United States 
national herds in Montana, the Yellowstone 
Park and Oklahoma are increasing. A national 
herd should be acquired for the Glacier Park. 
The six muskox calves, brought back from the 
Arctic by Paul Rainey and Harry Whitney, and 
now on exhibition in the park of the Zoologi¬ 
cal Society, offer the hope that these animals 
may be perpetuated in confinement. 
In the Northeast and in the neighborhood of 
the Yellowstone Park and Rocky Mountains, 
moose are holding their own or even increas¬ 
ing. Reference is made to Mr. Shiras inter¬ 
esting articles on the Yellowstone moose, pub¬ 
lished in Forest and Stream. 
Caribou seem wholly to have disappeared 
from Maine, and are growing much scarcer in 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 
The elk, abundant only in the Yellowstone 
Park and its vicinity, present there a difficult 
problem. It is thought that the Southern herd 
must be exterminated by starvation, unless 
some means can be devised for introducing 
them to a winter feeding round. There are still 
a few elk in the Olympic Mountains, in British 
Columbia, and in the Glacier National Park. 
There are some dwarf elk in California. In 
New England no one seems to know what to 
do with the Virginia deer. 
Antelope, protected all over the United 
States, may still be shot in certain Canadian 
provinces. The protective law of Arizona ex¬ 
pires March II, 1911. 
White goats are abundant, and mountain 
sheep are certainly not decreasing. 
Bears are growing fewer, except in protected 
districts like the national parks. The Kadiak 
bear has become scarce. 
Beaver have greatly increased. The fur seal 
herd on the Pribilof Islands grows constantly 
smaller, owing to pelagic sealing. 
It is suggested that in some States careful 
protection has resulted in such an increase in 
the number of certain wild animals, that com¬ 
plaint is made of the damage done by them. 
This is true, of deer in New England, and of 
elk and beaver in some Western States. These 
wild animals should be protected and grown 
for man’s use and benefit, just as a forest is 
grown and protected, but they should not be 
turned over to the public so as to induce a wild 
scramble, where each individual is engaged in 
a struggle to secure more of the game or fur 
than his fellowman gets. In localities where 
beaver are abundant the committee is disposed 
to suggest legislation authorizing local govern¬ 
ments to cause to be trapped each year a rea¬ 
sonable proportion of the beaver and to sell 
their skins for the benefit of the protective 
work. Such trapping should be retained in 
government control—it should not be opened 
To the public. Certain hoofed game might be 
domesticated and reared for sale, as has often 
been suggested. 
The Yellowstone Park, now a reservoii oE 
large game animal life, should be drawn on to 
supply' other National Parks and any game 
refuges that may be established. Congress 
should make an appropriation for the transfer 
from the Yellowstone Park of large game ani¬ 
mals, at least to the buffalo parks in Oklahoma 
and Montana, and to the Glacier National Park. 
A resolution accepting the report of the com¬ 
mittee and embodying its recommendations 
was adopted by the club. Later Mr. Wood, 
the chairman, made a supplementary report an¬ 
nouncing that under authorization of the Sec¬ 
retary of the Interior and with the co-operation 
of the Agricultural Department, the Acting 
Superintendent of the Yellowstone Park had 
caused to be captured twelve antelope, which 
had been shipped to the buffalo reserve in Mon¬ 
tana, and eleven antelope which had been 
shipped to the Wichita game preserve in Okla¬ 
homa. Of those shipped to Montana four were 
bucks, and eight does, while to Oklahoma went 
four bucks and seven does. There was a loss 
by death of-three of the animals shipped, these 
being bucks that had killed themselves in the 
crates. 
The cost of all this work—the gathering, crat¬ 
ing and shipping these animals to their destina¬ 
tions—was borne by the Boone and Crockett 
Club. 
A letter received by the chairman of the com¬ 
mittee from Major Brett, Acting Superintendent 
of the Yellowstone Park, gives an interesting 
account of the capture and shipment of these 
antelope. It says: . 
A shipment yesterday of two fine buck 
antelope to Oklahoma completes the work for 
the present. Twelve in all were shipped to 
Montana, of which four were bucks and eight 
were does. Eleven were shipped to Oklahoma, 
of which four were bucks and seven were does. 
The original idea was to ship ten to each place, 
but a letter from Mr. Hodges, warden at the 
National Bison Range at Dixon, Mont., dated 
Dec. 20, stated that one of the bucks that had 
been shipped was dead when received, and an¬ 
other letter from him, dated Dec. 30, stated that 
he had been unable to locate the other buck on 
the range, and he was afraid that he also was 
dead. It was, therefore, thought advisable to 
ship two additional bucks to Montana, so as to 
be sure of at least one with the herd, and this 
was done on Jan. 6. 
A telegram from Mr. Frank Rush, Forest Super¬ 
visor at Cache, dated Jan. 8 , stated that one of 
the male antelope shipped Dec. 31 was dead, so 
an additional buck was sent to Oklahoma. 
As yet final reports have not been received 
from either Montana or Oklahoma, but it is 
hoped that there may be no further casualties, 
as our herd is badly stirred up, and it is not 
advisable to disturb them further this season. 
I note your request for an account of the 
methods employed in making this capture. The 
details were left to the judgment of Scout James 
McBride, who has been in the service for a 
number of years and has had previous experi¬ 
ence in capturing and shipping grown antelope 
and black-tailed deer. He was assisted by one 
of our other scouts, two men being sufficient for 
the work. The work was well done, only three 
being lost in catching the twenty-three that were 
shipped. Even these three were not injured m 
catching, but killed themselves after they were 
crated. The method employed is as follows: 
These antelope were captured in the Park at 
their feeding grounds near the northern en¬ 
trance to the Park by means of a trap consist¬ 
ing of a pen about fifteen feet in diameter made 
of Page woven wire fencing with a strip of 
chicken wire above the Page wire, the top of 
the chicken wire being slanted toward the cen¬ 
ter so as to throw the antelope back when they 
try to get out. A gate, which is made of boards, 
is held open by a catch which can be readily 
released by means of a trigger, and the gate is 
weighted so it will close as soon as the catch is 
released. All is very thickly padded with gunny 
sacks stuffed with hay, excepting a small section 
of the fence immediately opposite the gate, which 
is filled in with fine chicken wire that is not 
noticeable from the gate, thus giving the appear¬ 
ance of an opening. Experience has taught that 
without this apparent opening opposite the gate¬ 
way the antelope will not enter the inclosure. 
At first the trap was sprung by the antelope, by 
means of a fine wire stretched close to the 
ground inside of the inclosure, and covered with 
alfalfa hay which was placed in the pen to bait 
them in. Later it was found preferable to spring 
it by hand, so a fine wire was strung to a hiding 
place about 400 feet away, and the men lay in 
wait and sprung the trap by this wire. In this 
way they only sprung it when antelope that 
seemed most desirable were inside. 
The utmost silence is necessary, as they 
frighten at a slight unusual sound, and some- 
