New Britain herald., 1917-01-09

Washington, D. C., Jan. 9.-Al-
 though the wild life of North Ameri-
 ca Is more abundant than that of the
 other continents of the northern hem
 isphere and has only Africa as world
 rival, yet our present-day richness
 in this respect Is decidedly poor com-
 pared with the abundance and variety Of mammalian life that roamed our plains before the advent of the white man. while the vast number of spe- cies which disappeared even before the Indians came to inhabit the land
 Is even more astonishing.
 In a communication to the Nation al Geographic society, E. W. Nelson,
 chief of tho United States Geological
 Survey, gives an amazing account of North American wild life in prehis- toric times A portion of the com 1 municatton has been made public by
 the society in the following bulletin: Tho original buffalo herds have been estimated to have contained from 30,0oo,000 to s0,0oo,o00 animals (the latter figure is 6,O00,OOO greater than the total number of cattle in the United States according to the census of 191O, and in 1870 it was estimated that about 5,5OO,0O0 still survived exceeding by 100000 the number of
 mules in the United States in 1910. A number of men now living were priv ileged to see some of the great herds of the west before they were finally destroyed. pr. George Bird Grinnel writes:
 In 1870, I happened to be on a train that was stopped for three hours todet herd of buffalo pass. We sup posed they would soon pass by, but
 they kept on coming. On a number
 of occasions in earlier days the engi-
 neers thought that they could run through the herds, and that, seeing the locomotive, the buffaloes would l stop to turn aside; but after a few To- comotives had been ditched by the l of respecting the buffaloes idiosyn- l cractes.'
 Astonishing as was the number Of 1 buffalo which roamed the plains of 1 old, even more numerous were the an- | telope, though the latter did not At- 1 tract as much attention as the larger mammals. Besides these, the cron- ] iclers of the colonial days give many 1 interesting accounts of the incredible
 number of other wild animals, includ ing bears, wapiti, white tailed deer, and turkeys, on which the wolves l made fierce war. One writer narrates ] that during the winter of 1670-71 full 1 ly 2,400 moose were snared on the Great Manitoulin Island, at the head 1 of Lake Huron.
 The wealth of animal life found by
 our forebears. was one of the great
 natural resources of the New World 1 Although freely drawn upon from the first, the stock was but little depleted
 Up to within a century. During the I last 100 years, however, the rapidly ! increasing occupation of the continen, 1 and other causes, together with 8 ! steadily increasing commercial de- ! mand for animal products. have had l an appalling effect. The buffalo, elk l and antelope are reduced to a pitiful fraction of their former countless mum bers.
 Practically all other large game l has alarmingly decreased and it's eX- 1 termination has been partly stayed only by the recent enforcement of 1 protective laws.
 'The recent great abundance of large land mammals in North Ameri- 1 ca, both in individuals and species, is in striking contrast with their scare ity in South America, the difference evidently being due to the long isola,- ton of the southern continent from other land-masses, whence it might have been restocked after the loss of fOrmer existing fauna