938 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. io, 1910. 
Yellowstone National Park. 
Major H. C. Benson’s annual report on the 
condition of the Yellowstone Park for the period 
from Oct. 15 , 1909 , to Sept. 30 , 1910 , gives the 
grand total of all visitors to the park for the 
season of 1910 as 19,575- Of these nearly 8,400 
traveled with the regular transportation com¬ 
panies and 9,600 with various other companies. 
Nearly 5,800 tourists took the trip across the 
Yellowstone Lake with the T. E. Hofer Boat 
Company. 
FISH. 
D. C. Booth, in charge of the fish hatchery on 
Yellowstone Lake, near the Thumb, collected 6 ,- 
500,000 eggs of the black-spotted trout, most of 
which were distributed to different places in the 
United States. The fish hatchery at South 
Dakota furnished for the park 50,000 eastern 
brook trout, planted in various waters, and 30,000 
rainbow trout planted in Tower Creek. 
ANTELOPE. 
The winter of 1909 and 1910 was unfortunate 
in one respect; a great number of antelope were 
lost. The herd which collects each winter at 
the alfalfa field near Gardiner broke through the 
fence during the absence of the superintendent 
in San Francisco, and on his return to his post 
he found but twenty or twenty-five antelope re¬ 
maining in the park. ‘‘Means were at once taken 
to secure the return of the herd by raising the 
fence for about a mile, scattering alfalfa along 
this fence for a distance of half a mile or more 
on the outside. Then a detail of soldiers and 
rangers were sent to make a drive covering some 
seven miles in width. In this way some 600 or 
700 were returned.” 
DEER. 
About 800 blacktail and 100 whitetail deer 
were fed alfalfa during the winter. Four hun¬ 
dred blacktail deer made their home about Fort 
Yellowstone, where they were fed. The others 
were to be seen between Gardiner and the post 
along the road, where they were fed three times 
a week. 
' ELK. 
The number of elk in the park is estimated 
from 30,000 to 40 , 000 . Many of these leave the 
park during the winter and some are killed dur¬ 
ing the hunting season. Occasionally one may 
be killed within the park, but this poaching is 
very limited. 
MOOSE. 
Moose are frequently seen in the southeastern 
and southwestern parts of the park and are be¬ 
lieved to be increasing in numbers. Articles 
from the pen of Hon. George Shiras, 3 d, pub¬ 
lished in recent years in Forest and Stream, 
show that these animals are vastly more abund¬ 
ant than has been suspected. They are exceed¬ 
ingly local in habit and confine themselves to 
sections where there is as yet little or no travel. 
BUFFALO. 
On Feb. 23, as already noticed in Forest and 
Stream, a herd of twenty-nine buffalo were seen 
in the Pelican Valley. A herd of five had previ¬ 
ously been seen on Cache Creek. During the 
winter an old bvdl died near the Yellowstone 
Lake, and its skeleton and skin were sent to the 
National Museum at Washington. 
The fenced herd continues to thrive and in¬ 
crease. It now numbers 121 head, including 
twenty-eight calves of 1910 . A calf born late 
in the autumn of 1909 was killed by an old bull. 
A four-year-old bull that was crippled died the 
same fall, while in September of this year a 
yearling calf died, having been gorged by a bull. 
Sixteen bulls were removed from the pasture 
in the Lamar Valley to the one at Hot Springs, 
where they were kept during the summer for 
the entertainment of the visitors. There are too 
many bulls in the herd, and the continual fight¬ 
ing endangers the young stock. A number of 
these old bulls might well be dispensed with. 
The annual appropriation of $ 3,000 for the 
maintenance of this herd, though an increase 
over last year, is too small to provide them with 
hay, and it is urged that next year it should 
be increased to $ 4 , 000 . 
bears. 
Bears in the park continue to be a nuisance. 
They destroy tents or enter houses through win¬ 
dows to secure supplies, and sometimes refuse to 
be driven away. A man trying to drive a bear 
away from a supply tent during the night was 
severely bitten and scratched, and was twelve 
days in the hospital from this cause. A five- 
year-old female grizzly was trapped in a cage 
and sent to the National Zoological Park at 
Washington. 
MOUNTAIN sheep. 
About 150 mountain sheep were seen during 
the winter near Tower Falls and about Mt. 
Everts. About sixty that wintered on Mt. Everts 
were fed alfalfa in the Gardiner canon. These 
mountain sheep do not seem to increase as fast 
as they should. 
COYOTES. 
Coyotes are plentiful and undoubtedly destroy 
a great deal of game. The scouts and certain 
authorized soldiers are ordered to kill them, and 
about forty were shot and trapped during the 
past year. 
forest fires, 
Ten small fires which were discovered and ex¬ 
tinguished by the patrols and soldiers during the 
summer and three large fires did much damage 
in the park. One of the large ones was on Mt. 
Holmes, one on Juniper Creek on Mary’s Moun¬ 
tain, and one south of the Yellowstone Lake. 
The extinguishing of these fires was a very seri¬ 
ous matter and that on the south side of the lake 
came near destroying the camp of the soldiers 
who were fighting it, and perhaps costing some 
life. The Hofer Boat Company did good service 
in connection with this fire. 
Four persons were ejected from the park for 
starting fires through carelessness in extinguish¬ 
ing camp-fires. Major Benson’s services in con¬ 
nection with the fires which raged in the park 
deserve high commendation. He has now been 
ordered to Hawaii and his place has been taken 
by Major Brett. 
Deer Hunting Casualties. 
Michigan newspapers are full of accounts of 
accidents to deer hunters which took place dur¬ 
ing the season lasting from Nov. 10 to Nov. 30 . 
Men, women and children were injured and one 
hunter is said to have been killed by a woman. 
It is reported that in the upper peninsula of 
Michigan there were forty-six accidents, of which 
twenty were fatal. In twenty-eight cases hun¬ 
ters were shot in mistake for deer, and eight of 
these cases resulted fatally. One man was sup¬ 
posed to be a bear and was killed by a friend. 
In four cases men who had killed people ran 
away, leaving the victims to die unattended. 
It would seem that the Michigan public might 
learn an effective lesson from this record. The 
passage and enforcement of a law permitting the 
killing only of horned deer would have saved 
the lives of a large proportion of those who, in 
the space of three short weeks, were sacrified to 
the heedlessness and eagerness of their fellows. 
The Michigan press is earnest in its demand 
that this wholesale slaughter of men be stopped. 
This can be done just so soon as the people of 
Michigan demand the. passage of a law which 
shall require the so-called hunter to hold his fire 
until he is in a position to know just what it is 
that He is shooting at. 
A hunter returning from Minnesota reports a 
condition of things there as bad as in Michigan, 
and says that the loss of life and injuries from 
carelessness and ignorance has been very great. 
The woods are full of deer, but almost as full 
of hunters, many of whom are ready to pull the 
trigger on any object that moves; 
Palisades Park Safe. 
With only five counties still to be heard from 
regarding the vote on the project, the count 
stands 334,062 for and 274,303 against the propo¬ 
sition to raise $ 2 , 5 oo,ooo*by bond sale in New 
York State in order to make possible the accept¬ 
ance of the Harriman lands and various sums 
offered for the purpose of enlarging the Pali¬ 
sades Interstate Park. The vote by counties— 
excepting Franklin, Fulton, Nassau, Orleans and 
Rensselaer—was as follows : 
Albany . 
Allegany ... 
Broome . 
Cattaraugus .. 
Cayuga . 
Chautauqua . 
Chemung .. 
Chenango . 
Clinton .. 
Columbia . 
Cortland . 
Delaware ... 
Dutchess . 
Erie . 
Essex . 
Franklin . 
Fulton ..... 
Genesee . 
Greene . 
Hamilton . 
Herkimer . 
Jefferson . 
Kings . 
Lewis . 
Livingston . 
Madison . 
Monroe . 
Montgomery . 
Nassau . . 
New York . 
Niagara . 
Oneida . 
Onondaga . 
Ontario . 
Orange . 
Orleans . 
Oswego . 
Otsego ... 
Putnam . 
Queens . 
Rensselaer . 
Richmond . 
Rockland . 
St. Lawrence . 
Saratoga .— 
Schenectady . 
Schoharie . 
Schuyler . 
Seneca . 
Steuben . 
Suffolk . 
Sullivan . 
Tioga . 
Tompkins . 
Ulster .. 
Warren . 
Washington . 
Wayne . 
Westchester . 
Wyoming . 
Yates . 
For. 
8,720 
639 
3,674' 
1,326 
1,352 
1,470 
826 
1,117 
1,544 
1,265 
1,172 
1,336 
2,925 
2,918 
1,115 
657 
587 
1,166 
225 
980 
1,569 
80,831 
534 
1,185 
1,428 
2,041 
1,468 
119',254 
2,147 
3,250 
4,334 
1,825 
5,789 
1,909 
1,717 
1.000 
, 13,868 
! 4472 
! 2,85i 
. 3,450 
1,048 
637 
. 620 
. 1,128 
. 1,515 
. 5,170 
. 1,546 
. 1,011 
801 
. 4,019 
. 1,562 
. 2,304 
798 
. 21,038 
885 
344 
Against. 
8,325 
3,375 
6,360 
5,287 
4,760 
3,601 
2,490 
3,800 
2,353 
2,499 
3,260 
4,996 
2,815 
3,846 
1,868 
2,884 
1,782 
2,573 
374 
2,309 
6.732 
35,156 
3,381 
3,040 
3.733 
2,679 
2,731 
3l',796 
4.166 
7.562 
7,923 
4,523 
3,369 
4.662 
5.003 
645 
7,446 
2,270 
e'.iis 
4,953 
1.494 
3,329 
1,871 
2,200 
7.167 
4.385 
2,876 
3,045 
2,751 
6.421 
2,835 
3,976 
3,072 
7,223 
2,356 
1,848 
Total 
334,062 274,303 
