Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-03

Depredators Whom 1t is Hard to Keep
Out of the Yellowstone Park.

Among the many sorts OF depredators with
which this government is obliged to deal. not
the least difficult to manage are the so-called
skin hunters. who invade the Yellowstone Park
In pursuis of game. They are the most I'M
principled of sportsmen, if such they may be
termed. and their object is merely indis-
crimina.e slaughter. If they can get a chance
at = herd of elk they will massacre them
by hundreds. simply for their horns. Elk an
tiers are worth from $40 to els pair. Their
hides have not much value, though their meat
when tender is declared by epicures to be the
finest of all flesh for eating, being even prefer
able to beef. 1t is very juicy, but sometimes it
is tough.
OF course, elk horns are used as trophies Of
the chase, most commonly by persons who
wish to pretend that they have shot the
animal represented. There is a much better
and more harmless method Of securing them
than by shooting the creature that wears them.
The latter sheds it's antlers regularly once a
year, and they may often be found lying on the
ground, where their original owner has left
them. After remaining thus for while they
become bleached to the wilderness Of chalk. but
it is easy enough to give them a proper appear
ance by staining and polishing them. 1t is not
difficult to end pair in the way described that
will match suitably.
VALUE OF SOME SKINS.
Capt. Anderson, the present superintendent
Of the park, was in Washington last week. He
says that there are as many as 5000 elk in that
national reservation. but Mr.. Hague Of the
geological survey puts the number at only
6, 900. 1t is not possible to make a satisfactory
estimate, owing to the vast area over which the
animals roam. There is no doubt of the fact that
they are rapidly becoming extinct elsewhere, and
it is considered most important to keep the
depredators from getting at them. Still more
forcibly does the same remark apply to the
buffalo. OF these great beasts, which used to
browse in such countless herds on the plains,
only about 900 individuals now remain alive.
Four hundred of them are in the park, where
they seem to thrive very well and to multiply
at fair rate.
The buffalo afford the strongest inducement
to the skin hunters. Hides Of these animals,
such as used to be purchasabie for 81. are now
quite valuable. Whereas nearly every farmer
used to have one for laprobe, at present they
are highly priced for drawing room rugs and
other select purposes. good head will fetch
$3.50 to 5000. The demand is said to have
brought into existence the peculiar industry
of manufacturing buffalo heads artifcialiy,
with the aid of papier mache. dyed
fur of another kind and other such raw
materials. Bear skins likewise salable at
good figures. The park. which is half as large
as the state Of Connecticut, is woody and
mountainous. 1t affords q home for many
grizzlies. Also there are numerous brown,
black and cinnamon bears, the black being most
common. In winter they hibernate in caves
and the hollow trunks of trees.
There are a good many antelope in the park
also. 1t is said the skin hunters shoot
them for their horns, their meat-whch
is very good-and pure cussedness. The
beaver, which build their dams in the streams,
hunted for their pelts. Shooting in the reser-
walton for any purpose whatsoever is wholly pro-
tod shi IL, all "a OF
prosecuted for commercial purposes. Anybody
may carry many fish he likes out Of the
park, but il it is found that he has sold one the
offender will be deprived of the privilege and
forbidden to enter the reservation. The fish
sold at the hotels in the park all come from
game that swims as for quadrupeds.
There il sheet of water just cut
side Of the reservation which was known
a few years ago as Lake Abundance. because it
contained many trout One day some
"sportsmen' set off a big charge of dynamite
in the bed of the lake. because they thought it
would be fun to all the fish come floating
to the surface dead. Their wish WAS gratified,
and there have never been any trout there
since.
Up to 1888 the park was so far removed from
civilization that it might as well have
been in Alaska. For the sake OF safety
people only visited 1T in large parties.
vent the killing Of game within the reserva-
ton. But in tnat wear a branch Of the Northern
Pacific railroad from Livingston to Cinnabar
opened up the country. At present she people
who dwell in that vicinity are opposed to the
skin hunters, because they want the park to be
as attractive as possible and are anxious that
people shall 60 there.
NO LEGAL PUNISHMENT.
Unfortunately. there is no legal enactment
to afford proper protection against the depre-
dators. The government of the park is vested
in the Secretary of the Interior. He makes
rules and regulations as he sees At, but there is
no law to support them. There are no courts
to exercise jurisdiction over offenses COM
mitted within the limits of the res ervation
The superintendent is an officer of cavalry Two
companies of cavalry are stationed at the
park-one at Mammoth Hot Springs and the
other at Lower Gevser Basin. They patrol
the reservation seeing that there is no shooting,
and preventing curiosity seekers from carving
off fragments of petriied wood and from break
ing OF pieces of the mineral deposits around
the hot springs and geysers. Such vandals de-
light to inscribe their names with lead pencil
on the geyserite. The subsequent deposition
Of film Of silica over the marks renders them
indelible.
When anybody is caught shooting in the
park there is no law by which the offender can
be punished. He is simply expelled from the
reservation. Commonly his weapons and OUT
fits are confscatea and sent to the Interior
Department at Washington, where they are
subsequently sold. But there is no other au-
thority for doing this than the orders Of
the Secretary Of the Interior Sometimes the
depredator is locked up for a while after a
formal hearing before the superintendent, but
there is nothing to do but 20 let him Co.
II is purely military law which governs in the
premises. There ought to be u United States
commissioner in the park to try people for
wrong doing. A bill authorizing the appoint
ment OF such an officer, and making proper
regulations for the government of the reserva-
ton. has been before Congress for the last eight
years, but 1t has always been defeated in the
House by lobbyists acting in behalf of the cap
italists who desire TO run a railway through the
park. They will not permit any bill TO 60
through unless 1t carries their scheme with it
TIMBER THIEVES.
Another cd class of depredators with whom
Uncle Sam has 60 deal are the timber thieves.
They steal wood from government reservations.
Either they are agents OF corporations or else
they want to get the wood for sale to CORPORA
tons. They go into the primeval forest. put
up saw mills and cut millions of feet of timber,
sometimes clearing off thousands of acres II
such thing were attempted in Virginia 1t
would excite howl at once, but far
off in the backswoods 70 notice will perhaps be
taken of it. and it is likely that nobody knows
to whom the land belongs. To hunt up and
punish such thieves the Interior Department
employs so-called timber agents. They get I'D
eyldence raspactipU the nj tho