The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-10-22

Ieiicsu game preserve III Arlerlcd-
 In this vast inclosure of tWenty-four thousand acres there are hundreds of deer and elk and moose, and there are wild bOars, too, by hundreds, but what is of far more importance to the people of this country, is the fact, that in this great park is preserved the largest herd of pure bred buffalOes to be found in any inclosure in the world. This fact is of special interest at this time, when our government and the in telligent people all over the country are being urged to take the last chance to save from total extinction one of the grandest if not the very grandest hoofed animal which ever ,trod the earth. That the million of bhffaloes which darkened the plains Of the, West less than tllirty-five years ago were shamelessly butchered to swell the purses of few interruptions men, is one os the darkest blots on the history of our country, and it has disgraced us lin the eyes of the other civilized na- tons of, the world. For years 1t was supposed that the buffalo was gone, and in truth there seemed to be no
 
 possibility Of his survival, and that we now have one more chance to save this splendid creature from total extinction is due entirely to the efforts of hand- ful of able and public-spirited men like the late Mr. Austin Corbin, the fonnd- CT of The Blue Mountain Forest Game Preserve. ~.~~.
 People are so used to thinking of the buffalo as belonging peculiarly to the West, and the owners of Corbin Park are. sos modest concerning their own achievements, that comparatively few people even know of the existence of this great herd. Of course the United States Government and all authorities on the buffalo, know all about it, but within the last week I have read one magazine article and one newspaper article concerning the last surviving buffaloes, and in neither was there even the briefest mention of the Cor bin herd.
 In the year 1890, the late MT. Aus tin Corbin, who had just fenced his large game park near Newport, New Hampshire, established there herd of about thirty buffalo of the finest stock, with T view to preserving some of the last survivors of q fast-vanishing race from total extinction. They were I taken off the cars at Newport, and driven between five and six miles along the country roads to the park, to the great astonishment of many Of the farmers, who had never seen buffaloes before. and who mistook these huge shaggy beasts for some new breed ot cattle which Mr. Corhin had imported, The little herd was allowed to roam at will over Croydon Mountain and the plains which surround it for seven months of the year, and during those seven months the animals got their own living and were no care to any one. But the winters in New Hamp- shire being long. and severe, it was necessary to feed them on hay during the five remaining months, and as a matter of convenience they were yard- ed during these months in smaller in- closures, near the barns where the hay was stored. All went well with them until 1896, when the herd had in- lcreased to seventy-five and 1t was de- cided to ship twenty-five head to Van Cortland Park, New York. Owing to bad management these twenty y-ffve be- came So diseased that they either died Tor had to be shot. This constituted the jlnost severe setback which the herd has ever sustained. The fifty which were left in New Hampshire. continued l to thrive, and in 1900 it again numbered seventy-five, and from that time until l the present day there has been steady increase, and now the herd numbers I over one hundred and sixty as healthly and as handsome buffalo as ever graced a western prairie or gladdened the eye I of a hungry Indian. Even as I write see from my window this splendid herd grazing on hillside not far away their dark brown bodies in strong re lief against the light brown grass. Foi month or more they have beer wandering oil the other side of the mountain, but now they are back again, and We shall enjoy the sight oi 1 them perhaps for days to come. Some. I thing has startled them, for they have stopped grazing and have raised theii heads in alarm. And here they come down the mountain side like a charge Of cavalry, their tails in the air and their humps rising and falling as tht animals move on with their peculiar bounding movement, which carries them easily forward at a speed with which we could hardly credit such ponderous animals. They come like 2 landslide, the earth trembles beneath I their mighty hoofs, and the sound oi their coming is like the roar of an avalanche. As they near the level ground below they gradually slacker their speed, the roar of their l1oof. beats moderates and dies away, as the buffaloes finally come to halt on a grassy plain which borders my garden
 And for the hundredth time must gc out to admire anew these picturesque creatures which forms the most inter. esting link we have, connecting the twentieth century with the early his tory of our country-With the history of the Indians and the pioneer settlers There are many calves scarcely six (Continued on Seventh Page.l