At least one-half of the public interest attaching to the Yellowstone Park is based upon its wild animals.  There, the average visitor sees, for the first time, wild mountain sheep, antelope, mule deer, elk, grizzly bears and white pelicans, roaming free.  But for the tragedy of the Park bison herd,—­slaughtered by poachers from 1890 to 1893, from 300 head down to 30—­visitors would see wild bison also; but now the few wild bison remaining keep as far as possible from the routes of tourist travel.  The bison were slaughtered through an inadequate protective force, and (then) utterly inadequate laws.

Lieut.-Col.  L.M.  Brett, U.S.A., Superintendent of the Yellowstone Park advises me (July 29, 1912) that the wild big game in the Yellowstone Park in the summer of 1912, is as shown below, based on actual counts and estimates of the Park scouts, and particularly Scout McBride.  “The estimates of buffalo, elk, antelope, deer, sheep and bear are based on actual counts, or very close observations, and are pretty nearly correct.” (Col.  Brett).

  Wild Buffalo 49
  Moose 550
  Elk (in summer) 35,000
  Antelope 500
  Mountain Sheep 210
  Mule Deer 400
  White-tailed Deer 100
  Grizzly Bears 50
  Black Bears 100
  Pumas 100
  Gray Wolves none
  Coyotes 400
  Pelicans 1,000

The actual count of 49 wild bison in the Park, 10 of which are calves of 1912, will be to all friends of the bison a delightful surprise.  Heretofore the little band had seemed to be stationary, which if true would soon mean a decline.

The history of the wild game of the Yellowstone Park is blackened by two occurrences, and one existing fact.  The fact is:  the town of Gardiner is situated on the northern boundary of the Park, in the State of Montana.  In Gardiner there are a number of men, armed with rifles, who toward game have the gray-wolf quality of mercy.

The first stain is the massacre of the 270 wild bison for their heads and robes, already noted.  The second blot is the equally savage slaughter in the early winter of 1911, by some of the people of Gardiner, reinforced by so-called sportsmen from other parts of the state, of all the park elk they could kill,—­bulls, cows and calves,—­because a large band wandered across the line into the shambles of Gardiner, on Buffalo Flats.

If the people of Gardiner can not refrain from slaughtering the game of the Park—­the very animals annually seen by 20,000 visitors to the Park,—­then it is time for the American people to summon the town of Gardiner before the bar of public opinion, to show cause why the town should not be wiped off the map.