The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-01-08
THE ANTELOPE ISLAND HERD.
History of the Now Famous Buffalo Rem
nant-How They Were Preserved.
(Salt Lake City Tribune. }

(SalU lhk6 Sluy AAioNuo.)
The herd of buffalos to which wide
public attention has been drawn by the
recent tragic fate of one of its bulls, has
been grazing on Antelope lsland Tor
three years. 1t is owned by the Island
Improvement Company, which Is COM
posed of John E. Dooly and White &
Sons When Buffalo Bill Glassman gave
up his ambition to replenish the West
with the American bison, the Improve
ment Company took the little herd ne
had gathered at Lake Point and trans
ported it to the island. The Antelope
range is admirably suited to it's wants,
and ON the nutritious grasses Astounding
there it has fed and fattened. Though
nominally in captivity, its freedom is
only limited by the waters that surround
the island and by the stout fences built
TO protect the cultivated spots on the
ranch from being overruu. Unlike the
elk that swan away from the islaud, the
buffaloes have made no effort to escape.
Their domain is large enough to satisfy
the ir migratory instinct. From end to
end it is nearly thirty miles, ana to its
widest point it is six miles across. IL has
surface varied enough to suit the most
adventurous buffalo; nature has provid-
ed watering places in most convenient
spots; delightful Expressions abound in
which the herd may wallow to its hides
content, and altogeth er Antelope is an
ideal home for semi-civilized bison.
The herd has grown over there until
now it numbers nearly twenty. Four
calves were born this year, and thu in
terest of visitors to the island is most ex :
cited by these shy young buffaloes. The
domestic affairs of the herd have under
gone two upheavals during its life on
Antelope. These experiences have cor
roboratsd the theory, disputed by some
buffalo authorities, that one bull rules
the herd, and that the question OF SUI
supremacy ia settled from time to time
on the field of honor. The head of the
family does not long enjoy his champion
ship in peace Some young. ambitious
| bu il challenges him to contest, and the
buffalo code requires i'm to accept forth
W 18th. He always does, fer his COWS are
looking at him, and even if he could re-
main among them without fighting,
which he could not, he would henceforth
be despiseh. So he locks horns with his
rebellious antagonist, and the fight goes
| Oh TO d uulSIl. VIC Cu hl1Ou6oi 10
| subdued or the reigning bull is driven
from the herd and thereafter is an out
cast. The bull in command at the time
the herd was placed OIL the island was
| driven out about year later by here's
young gallant, who held sway but
yenr. The struggle in which he was de-
| feated lasted for two days, and then he,
! too, became a whndeIer. 1t was one OF
these deposed bulls that was killed in
the desperate combat of Tuesday last.
| The present } ing of the herd is NAM
moth fellow, one of the finest specimens
of his kind, but he will not be allowed
| to remain much longer unmolested in his
sovereignty. Already there ara indica-
| lions that the younger bulls arc growing
rsstive under his rule, and one of them
may any day rebel, and when he does a
struggle will follow that will be worth
| encountering the perils of voyage TO
the battle-ground to see. This system of
rotation in otfics is the way the buffalo
has of applying the principle OF the sur
yival of the httest, and is held By phiios-
ophers to have been designed to insure
the vigor of the offspring.
| The disappearance from the plains OF
| the race of which this small bunch is one
| of few remnants, was caused by the
greatest slaughter of wild animals the
world has ever seen. 1t has been said by
statistical expert, that "of all the quad
rupeds that have lived upon the earth
probably no other species has ever mar
shaled such innumerab1e hosts as those
Of the American bison. before 1870,
millions upon millions of buffaloes
moved over the plains from Manitoba to
| Mexico. In one great herd that was en-
| oountered in Kansas by one of the first
trains that crossed that state, 1t is esti'
mated that there were 1000. 600 of thes9
| animals, whose destruction WAS caused
soon byhe value of their hides. After the
| war an army of hunters spread over the
| feeding grounds of the buffalo. and from
river bluffs. and hilltops hidden sharp
| shooters brought beast after beast until
whole herds were dead. So vigorous WAS
this execution during the four years sue
ceeding 1870, that live huffaloes had
| become scarce, hut everywhere along the
old trails skinned carcasses were rot
| ting
| In 1870 the large profits of the previous
years we've no longer obtaiDatle, but
the slaughter was continued until nearly
all the producers of robes were gone.
| Now only few hundred remain. Most
| of these are in national and city parks
| or like the Dooly nerd, are held by pri-
vate owners. One of the largest of the
herds is that of the A ustin Corbin es-
tate at Newport, N. RI. Until recently
there were ninety buffaloes in this pre-
serve, but about a month ago thirty of
them were given to the city of New
| York and placed in Van Cortland park.
The Corbin estate consists of 20, 900 acres,
and in addition to the bCffaloes it con-
tains 1, 200 deer, 1000 elk, 500 wild boars
and $50 moose.
|