Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-03
Game Butchering in the Bad Lands.
Twenty Thousand Elk, Mule Deer and | Antelope Butchered by Hide Hunters

Twenty Thousand Elk, Mule Deer and
 Antelope Butchered by Hide Hunters
 Annually.
 From the New York Sum-
 s'When I tell you that not less than twenty thousand elk, antelope and mule deer are slaughtered every winter in Minnesota, Mon tana and Wyoming alone," said Engineer William Phillips, late of the Northern Pacific railroad, ''you may readily believe that it will not be many years before the race of three of the noblest game animals on the American | continent will be entirely extinct.
 sElk, which formerly ranged from the | middle States to the Pacific, are now never found east of the Missouri river. Twenty five years ago they were still plenty in Kan sas and Nebraska, but the rapid advance of civilization in those States has driven them | into the dense and as yet uninhsblted regions of Minnesota and the northern territories. | If they were doomed to extinction by the ! natural progress of civilization, or the ef- fects of legitimate hunting in those regions, 1 they would be certain of long life tenure i; | but the wholesale slaughter of elk, in all sea- | sons, that has been going on for the past hf- l teen years has resulted in so thinning out ] their ranks that the sportsman has nov to l seek the game in the most remote parts Of | even the comparatively unfrequented region | to which they have been driven. This indis- | criminate and organized crusade against elk | and it's kin, the mule deer and antelope, be- | gan about 1872, when some Fort Benton par | ties conceived the idea of trading in their | skins. These men fitted out hunting arties 1 and they spread through the country men, | toned The result was so satisfactory that still larger parties, equipped with the most approved and destructive weapons, were sent out and the business has been increasing ever 1 since.
 l "Elk travel in herds, and to the legitimate hunter there is no more noble and exciting | sport than elk hunting. When not hlndered l by deep snow they make their way with won- derful ease and rspidity through the very | worst of the bad lands of the region they in- habit. Mounted on a fleet broncho, the hunter is frequently led chase for many
 miles before he is able to capture his wary
 game The natural gait of the elk is grace
 ful swinging trot, and as long as they main
 tain that they never tire. It is one great o6- feet Of the hunter to follow so closely on his
 pony as to break this trot into gallop This
 done he is almost sure of his elk, for It soon
 tires and lags. An elk will weigh from 3oO
 to 500 pounds, and no member of the deer
 family has such delicate and finely favored
 flesh.
 'sThe greatest destruction to these game
 animals is carried on by the hide hunters
 during the season of deep snow. In April
 the COW elks leave the bulls to themselves
 and retire to the thickets and close timber.
 I have known one single hide hunter to kill
 ip one month in the snow, and that in the
 month of April, thirty-Ave COW elks. This
 man WAS one of party of thirteen, and
 each one of the others averaged as large 2
 number. Their party killed over 45O COW
 eiks, each one of which would have g1vep
 birth in 8 few weeks to a calf. The eIk
 brings forth its young about the first of June;
 These men were but very small number oi
 the hide hunters operating in the region, and thousands of elk were slaughtered that