The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-16

1 idio Jones was one or the most DIG
 turesque figures of the prairies. He re- l ceived his name from the great numbel l of buffaloes he had killed and captured | He was on the prairies throughout tht
 whole of the stirring times when buff
 falo hunters was the greatest sport ant
 the most profitable industry of the | West. Thousands of hunters, Indians and white men, hung on the Hanks ot 1 the great moving herds and destroyed l them by the tens of thousands "Buffa- lo' Jones was one of the first to see the
 real danger of extermination and h6
 started in to domesticate some of the
 animals before it should be too late He
 captured number of the widest bulls
 and cows that could be found, and
 these he shut up on his ranch near
 Kansas City, Mo-, to experiment. with.
 He harnessed some of the fiercest bulls
 to carts and attempted to break them in | to do domestic service. His famous
 bull John l.. Sullivan" was one of the largest and fiercest buffalo bulls ever
 captured and the stories of its ferocity
 would fill columns of newspaper hs- | tory.
 ! But the most successful of all these
 experiments was the preservation Of 1 goodsized herd of over hundred full | blooded buffaloes in the Texas Pan handle" where they are slowly in creasing in numbers in spite of the deaths and various divisions of the herd that have been made. The herd is
 the joint property of Col. c. J. Jones of
 Garden City, Ka., and Capt. Charles
 Goodnight of Texas. This herd, as well as the Allard herd, should increase in
 the natural way, for the ranges are so large that the animals are practically
 running wild.
 Other private herds are distributed in
 different parts of the country and in
 larger or smaller number. There are
 some 26 buffaloes in the Rocky Moun-
 tain park at Baniff. Canada; IA in
 Whitney at Lenox park, Mass; l5 in
 the Philadelphia geological gardens F
 at Bronx park and one at Van Cort-
 landt park, New York, and a full dozen
 or more in five or six scattered places.
 There are nearly half hundred in va
 rious parts of Germany, two dozen in
 England, and nearly 30 in other parts of Europe.
 This list accounts for nearly all the buffaloes in existence, except the wild ones which are roaming the great West under the prot tection of the national or state governments. In the Yellowstone park the number has been reduced to nearly 30, and the herd there is appar- ently being killed off faster than it can increase by birth. Teachers continu- ally destroy the few remaining animals, ~f ,ft tt,,>1 and scouts to protect them. The protection of the buffaloes is the most difficult task assigned to the superintendent of Yellowstone park. The natural range of the animals is on the open plains of a low altitude, but the great number of tourists and sportsmen in the park has driven them to seek the more inaccesi- ble portions of the mountains and the country, where the conditions are not so good for their in- crease. Their propagation is conse- quently less rapid, while the dangers from enemies seem to increase.
 It is estimated that the largest wild herd consists of some 200 animals run ming untamed through the country west of the Great Slave lake in Canada, which is one of the widest and most in accessible parts of the North American continent. Only hunters and Indians ever penetrate to that dismal region. The buffaloes which have retreated there are nevertheless fercely hunted by the Indians and even by white hunt ers Their number can hardly be eX- pected to increase, and it is doubtful if the herd will survive more than few years Nothing can be expected from these wild animals in the way of perpetuating their species. This must be accomplished by animals ade- ouateIy protected in private preserves or in public parks.
 There have been several national at tempts to provide adequate protection for the buffaloes on immense ranges set aside from the public domains; but, so far, thess efforts have produced no good results, and after the experiences in the Yellowstone park it is question able weather such plan would prove feasible. Recently bill was drafted in Congress to set aside 10000 acres of un- ,laimed land in New Mexico as buffa- o range where the herds now scattered n small numbers throughout the world should be consolidated. Another plan discussed in Congress was to lease to | Buffalo" Jones 10000 acres of land in . New Mexico at a nominal rental of me cent per acre per year for the prop ,gation of buffaloes, no condition that 1t least 100 full blooded buffaloes should ,e maintained on the range at all irnes, and that one buffalo should be each year to the National Geological gardens at Washington.
 One of the greatest obstacles to the successful preservation of the existing )uffaloes comes from "in and in breed ng. With only few in each of the ,erds scattered throughout the country, in and in" breeding is sure to weaken he vitality of the animals and to rob hem of their robustness and natural towers, which scientists have hoped to preserve A degenerate domesticated ,uffaln is a very different animal from he wild creature that used to roam the ,lains.
 Domestication or even semi -domesti- ation fails to perpetuate the wild buff alo, with all of his original instincts, mplep roportions, and muscular body; ut, nevertheless the present condition f the few in existence furnishes scien- ists with sufficient data to make them ,ore confident of the future. For over n ,,aoro ,,ouy tho dagtr11otipD Of the au- !