The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-04-11
VAST HERD OF ELK
Spectacular Scene is Promised When Starving Animals Are Removed to Better Foraging Grounds

Salem, Ore, April 11.-At least thir- ty thousand elk must be moved from Jackson's Hole or they will die of star vation For the last few years the priating large sums for hay to keep these animals from starving, and each winter finds conditions worse. It is estimated that at least fifty thousand elk winter in the JackSOn's Hole coun- try, large area south of the Yellow stone National Park. The elk scat ter during the summer months, many of them grazing in the park, but as winter approaches they converge to- ward their old winter quarters. Those quarters were ample before the home steader came to fence the lands. The elk would feed on the rich grass of the valleys in the fall, work up on the sheltered hillsides in the winter, and when necessity urged descend to the creeks and browse among the young willows and other foliage until the spring grass came. The Homestead CTS fence has made this impossible now, and each year lessens the am- ount of open range. The result is that despite the large amount of feed furnished them by the State each win ter sees an enormous death loss of this fast disappearing game animal.
 Driven to desperation from hunger, the elk will break down the strongest barbed wire fence surrounding hay stack and during a portion of the win- ter the settlers must guard their hay night and day. The elk have been known to mount upon the fallen bod ies of their companions, and thus climb to the top of a matched roof shed, where they would voraciously devour the rotten hay or straw used as a roof covering.
 To attempt to drive them anywhere, hon dc seems an impossible task, yet the gov ernment appropriation Is sufficient ev- idence that this feat will be underta- ken. Senator Warren has also obtain ed a promise from the War Depart ment for sufficient cavalrymen to herd the elk A tentative plan suggested is to- have the vast herd surrounded by a cordon of troopers on all sides, save the one in the direction it is desired to drive the elk with two ad- ditional lines of cayalrymen strung out along the course. A closing in of this circuit must start the elk on the course-and the unique race would be on.
 At a given signal the outriders along the course would also move forward, keeping we'll in advance of the fleeing herd. Detachments to serve as re- lays for these riders would have to be stationed at intervals along the proposed route, ana the SuFSlng, ,SlruS- gling mass kept moving until the goal was reached.
 Picture thirty thousand wild elk in full flight, pursued by mounted caval- rymen firing their revolvers into the air to further terrify the fleeing anil mals, a score Or more of riderless mounts-for many a bold horsemau will be thrown in that wild flight, with broken bones if not loss of life.
 Senator Warrens amendment to the agricultural bill appropriating s2O- COG flor feeding and removing elk from Jackson's Hole to better feeding ground in Wyoming passed during the last hours of Congress, was the prelude to what must undoubtedly prove the most interesting and excit- ing spectacle of the kind ever witness ed in any country.
 The Warren amendment means that some time next summer government troops will lattempt to herd thirty thousand Or more wild elk from the crowded ranges of Jackson's Hole to better feeding grounds on the Big Horn range.
 When the range cattle business was in it's palmiest days in that section of the West it. was not an uncommon sight to witness immense herds of half wild cattle numbering five thou sand and even ten thousand head, be- ing driven a hundred miles to the railroad. But even the widest con- conception of the most enthusiastic cattleman of the Golden West fails to grasp the immensity of the prob