The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-12-19
Several Extinct Americans.

Other poets than ROBERT BURNS have be.
walled mans inhumanity to man, but none
Of them, so far as we can recollect, has
set forth ftly the destructive force that is
bound up in the individual Man.
The A~nglo-Saxon type of the genus
homo. apparently bent on the e%xtirpation
of every living thing that exists in a state of
nature, is a constant complication of the
tendencies of the race. Take, for example,
the humiliation of the herds of the Ameri-
can bison that once covered the great plains
of the Northwest. AS lately as 1860 these
animals existed in millions, covering the
vast spaces of the Western plains, fairly
embrowning the swales and rolls of the
prairies over which the Battle-Ground emil
grant wound his weary way toward the
setting sun. The pushing out of many
railroads enabled thousands of tourists to
shoot buffalo from car windows. British
"sportsmen," in quest of big game, CUNT
ed their trophies by scores. Wanton pot
hunters slew unnumbered herds of the pa
tient creatures that clumsily wallowed
along the newly opened iron trail. The
destruction OF the American bison, 1t is
true. has helped to solve the Indian prob
lcHu, LILO "hTldIo u VIC Itu htH, WIZ
have lost their game and their bunting
grounds. Is transferred to the Interior De-.
partment, where traders and spectators
fight over the passing tribes-and each
other. But for this are due no thanks to
the ruthless exterminators who still watch
with fierce eyes the little bunch OF huff
falo herded In the Yellowstone Park reser-
walton, as n the feeble hovine relics were
the deadly enemies of mankind.
Almost within the memory of people now
living, the fur.bearinR seal was to he found
in great numbers on almost all the coasts of
the Pacific from the Arctic to the Antarctic.
With al avid rapacity that overcame all
obstacles, man has so nearly eXterminated
these poor creatures that only a compare
lively slender colony OF them survives on a
group Of islands Just below the Arctic
circle; aud 30 lond is the clamor, 80 deter.
mined the pursuit of the destrovers, that 1t
appears likely that the United States Gov.
eminent, the last protector of the sea, herd,
will finally throw up In despair It's contract
to preserve seal life, abandoning the last OF
the race to the greed Of the slayer.
The sea otter, another Of the highly
priced fur-bearing animals native to the
American continent, has Ollowed the
beaver and preceded the buffalo into those
"pale realms Of shade" where, let us hope
the extinguiAhed races OF the brute creation
bear company to the poor Indian and his
faithful dog.
1t was a bad year for the early French
and English colonists In which they die
not export q few hundred thousand beaver
skins. The slaughter continued to a com
parativelv recent period and ms lately an IL
the fifties OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES. advis
Ing the dressy youngsters Of the day, said
"Have q good hat; the secret Of your looks
Lives with the beaver In Canadian brooke"
But the words "beaver" and ~"castor'
have long since ceased to he significant o
anything hut q "reminiscences, hgurative ex
pressions without meaning to a younge,
generation that never knew the American
beaver of antiquity.
Time and space are lacking for an attemp
to catalogue ~thespecies now In process of ex
~tinction by the American people. Whethe
we have In mind the selfish lobsterers o
Maine, who persistently evade the laws an
entrap for their canneries the infant proRen,
OF what some laundering poet has styls'
"the cardinal Of the seas" Or Whsths