<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN>
<h1>THE MENTOR 1916.08.15, No. 113,<br/> Game Animals of America</h1>
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<p class="center gesperrt smaller">LEARN ONE THING<br/>
EVERY DAY</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">AUGUST 15 1916</p>
<p class="right smaller noindent" style="margin-top: -2em;">SERIAL NO. 113</p>
<p class="center"><span class="larger">THE<br/>
MENTOR</span><br/>
<br/>
GAME ANIMALS<br/>
OF AMERICA<br/>
<br/>
By W. T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center">Director New York<br/>
Zoological Park</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">DEPARTMENT OF<br/>
NATURAL HISTORY</p>
<p class="right smaller noindent" style="margin-top: -3em;">VOLUME 4<br/>
NUMBER 13</p>
<p class="center">FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="bbox-dashed">
<h2>Game Preservation</h2>
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<p>The most striking and melancholy feature in connection
with American big game is the rapidity with
which it has vanished. When, just before the outbreak
of the Revolutionary War, the rifle-bearing hunters of the
backwoods first penetrated the great forests west of the
Alleghanies, deer, elk, black bear, and even buffalo,
swarmed in what are now the States of Kentucky and
Tennessee, and the country north of the Ohio was a great
and almost virgin hunting-ground. From that day to
this the shrinkage has gone on, only partially checked
here and there.</p>
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<p>There is yet ample opportunity for the big game
hunter in the United States, Canada and Alaska.…
It is necessary to remember that these opportunities
are, nevertheless, vanishing; and if we are a sensible
people we will make it our business to see that the process
of extinction is arrested. At the present moment the
great herds of caribou are being butchered, as in the past
the great herds of bison and wapiti have been butchered.
Every believer in manliness, and therefore in manly
sport, and every lover of nature, every man who appreciates
the majesty and beauty of the wilderness and of
wild life, should strike hands with the far-sighted men who
wish to preserve our material resources, in the effort to
keep our forests and our game beasts, game birds, and
game fish—indeed, all the living creatures of prairie,
and woodland, and seashore—from wanton destruction.</p>
<p class="right">THEODORE ROOSEVELT.</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">From “Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter,” by Theodore Roosevelt.</p>
<p class="smaller noindent">Copyright, Charles Scribner’s Sons.</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<h2>GAME ANIMALS OF AMERICA</h2>
<p class="center larger"><i>By W. T. HORNADAY</i></p>
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<p class="center larger">THE MENTOR</p>
<div class="figleft"> <p class="center smaller">DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL HISTORY</p> <p class="center smaller"><i>MENTOR GRAVURES</i></p>
<p class="center smaller">ELK</p>
<p class="center smaller">MOUNTAIN SHEEP</p>
<p class="center smaller">ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT</p>
</div>
<div class="figright"> <p class="center smaller">AUGUST 15 1916</p> <p class="center smaller"><i>MENTOR GRAVURES</i></p>
<p class="center smaller">CARIBOU</p>
<p class="center smaller">BULL MOOSE</p>
<p class="center smaller">THE BISON LEADER</p>
</div>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus03.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="211" alt="" /> <p class="caption">Mountain Sheep Head</p> </div>
<p class="smaller" style="clear: both;">Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the postoffice at New York, N. Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1916,
by The Mentor Association, Inc.</p>
<p>Does anyone doubt that in North America the hunting of big game,—once
marvelously abundant,—is fast becoming an extinct pastime?
As a game animal, the American bison is gone. In the United
States, antelope hunting is gone, forever. The Arizona elk is totally
extinct. In the United States, mountain sheep hunting is extinct in
all States save two: and it should be so in those also. Mountain goat
hunting is possible in two States only. It is now next to impossible to
find and kill a wild grizzly in the United States.</p>
<p>There are many persons, of whom I am one, who believe that in a
brief span of years there will be no big-game hunting in the mountain
States west of the great plains, save around the borders of big-game
sanctuaries, such as the Yellowstone Park.</p>
<p>With the exception of the bison and the Arizona elk, we may even yet
see in our mountain States good specimens of some of the big-game
species that abundantly stocked them in pioneer days. We are glad that
we live contemporaneously with the colossal moose and the unique
antelope. We rejoice that we are on terms of intimacy with the lordly
elk, and that we have a bowing acquaintance with the goat and sheep.
We cherish the thought that we have seen real grizzly bears on their
native rocks, and also that we have “done our bit,” as the English say,
in saving the great American bison from oblivion.</p>
<p>It is not good for red-blooded men to live in a land that contains no
big game. It seems effeminate. To correct such a condition as that,
the New Zealanders took thought and colonized in their country the
European red deer; and that species has waxed numerous, and produced
tens of thousands of deer, for food and for sport.</p>
<p>North America has produced a good quota of big game species; but
in that line of native industry we are far surpassed by Asia; and by Africa
we are left completely out of sight. Really, Africa seems to have been
created as an ideal home for big game. Her array of apes, antelopes,
carnivores, and thick-skinned beasts compels unbounded admiration.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus04.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="135" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ON THE MONTANA BISON RANGE</p> <p class="caption">From a photograph taken in the summer of 1913 by H. W. Henshaw, Chief of the Biological Survey</p>
</div>
<p>While our game endures, let us make much of it, and appreciate it to
the utmost. And it is not all of game enjoyment to kill it, and cut off its
head, and let the bulk of the meat go into the discard. The highest type
of big-game hunting is the finding of fine animals in their haunts, photographing
them movably and unmovably, and then bidding them go in
peace. To be really and truly ignorant of such distinguished American
citizens as the moose and musk-ox, caribou, sheep, goat, antelope, deer and
Alaskan brown bear, is reprehensible, and should be punishable by a fine.</p>
<p>Many wild animals are more interesting per capita than some men.
To learn to know our best wild animals is like annexing new territory.
It increases our mental and moral resources, and provides a new channel
for the disposition of surplus wealth. Like Cupid’s story, they never
seem to grow old, and as long as one hoof or horn remains as a going concern,
just that long our interest continues in the wearer thereof.</p>
<p>The most interesting side of every wild animal is its mind,—what it
thinks, and why. First of all, however, we must know the personality
of our animal and be able to speak its name as promptly as the politician
names his voting acquaintances. To call an antelope a “deer”
is to lose a vote.</p>
<h3><i>The Saving of Big Game</i></h3>
<p>The characteristic features of America’s big game animals are to be
treated as natural history. The wasteful slaughter of them is unnatural
history. Ever since the days of Daniel Boone, the American pioneers and
exploiters of Nature’s resources have most diligently been exterminating
our bison, elk, deer, moose, antelope, sheep, and goats. For twenty years
we have been toiling to save the American bison from total extinction.</p>
<p>Thanks to the efforts of the United States and Canadian Governments,
the New York Zoological Society and the American Bison Society,
the buffalo now is secure against extinction. Our government now owns
and maintains six herds, having a total of about 570 head, and the Canadian
Government owns about 1,600 head. Our chief hope is based on
the herd in the Montana National Bison Range, now containing 134 head,
living in a rich pasture of 29 square miles, capable of supporting 1,000
bison without the purchase of a pound of hay. That herd has risen from
37 head presented in 1909 by the American Bison Society. The Wichita
and Wind Cave National Herds were founded by herds drawn from the
New York Zoological Park, and presented by the Zoological Society.</p>
<p>Excepting for the white-tailed deer and the elk, it is to-day a grave
question whether there will be any big game hunting in the United
States twenty years hence.</p>
<h3><i>The Prong-Horned Antelope</i></h3>
<p>It is now painfully certain that nevermore will there be any hunting
of the prong-horned antelope in our country. There has been none for
several years, but for all that the remaining bands are everywhere (save
in two localities) reported as steadily diminishing. Even in the Yellowstone
Park the antelope herds are now but little better than stationary.
Excepting the goat and musk-ox, the prong-horn is North America’s
most exclusively American species of big game. It is so very odd that
it occupies a Family all alone. It is the only living hollow-horned ruminant
that sheds its horns, every year.</p>
<p>But this nimble-footed rover is not fitted to withstand the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune A. D. 1916. It has no more staying power
than a French poodle,
and it wilts and dies
literally at the first
breath of adversity.
It will not breed in
captivity, nor does it
live long in any kind
of confinement. It is
subject to an incurable
mouth disease
called lumpy-jaw, and
will secretly and joyously
carry the unseen
germs of it for six
months for the purpose
of passing quarantine
and inoculating
an innocent herd in
some unsuspecting
Zoological Park.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus05.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="376" alt="" /> <p class="caption">PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE</p> <p class="caption">From a painting by Carl Rungius</p>
</div>
<p>Half a dozen Western
States have little
isolated bands of
antelope that they are trying to
preserve; but all save two are
steadily diminishing. In the Montana
and Wichita Bison Ranges,
of 29 and 14 square miles, efforts
are being made to establish
herds. Canada is making two
large prairie preserves, under
fence, especially for the purpose
of saving the antelope from
extinction. Taking all these efforts
together, there is a fighting chance
that the species eventually will be saved from oblivion, but at present the
odds are very much against it. As a sport with the rifle, however,
legitimate prong-horned antelope hunting is already as extinct as
mammoth-spearing on glacial ice.</p>
<h3><i>Mountain Sheep</i></h3>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus06.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="188" alt="" /> <p class="caption">MOUNTAIN SHEEP</p> </div>
<p>Over the Rocky Mountain sheep there is a halo of glamour that is to
every big-game hunter a veritable cloud by day and pillar of fire by
night. Standing out conspicuously apart from all other American hoofed
game, the big-horn thrills and challenges the gentleman sportsman as no
other big game does at this time. (There are fashions, even in the hunting
of big game!) A sportsman will go farther, spend more and endure
more to get “a big ram” as a trophy of his manhood in the chase than
for any other species. Why is it? It is because the old big-horn rams
are found where the scenery is grandest and most inspiring; they are
the keenest of eye, nose and ear of all our big game, and hunting them
successfully means real mountaineering. In Africa a lady can kill a
big elephant, but in the Rocky Mountains ladies do not kill big-horn
rams with the rings of eight or ten years on their horns.</p>
<p>There are times when hunting the mountain goat becomes sport for
men; but many a goat has been killed by an easy fluke. The old big-horn
ram, with horns that are worth while, requires real hunting, and
many a man has taken the long trail for one and gone back empty-handed.</p>
<p>I should be mighty sorry to see sheep-hunting become an extinct
pastime; for ye gods! it is the acme of sport with big game! Elephant
hunting (in India, at least) is tame in comparison. Colorado has proved,
through 26 years of watchful waiting, that to any mountain sheep State,
sheep can be brought back by protection. Twenty-six years ago the
sheep of that State were reduced to a dangerously-small remnant, of
only a few hundred head. Then the lid was put on, sheep-hunting was
forbidden, and, strange to say, even the residents of the sheep mountains
<i>elected to observe the law, and also to help enforce it</i>!</p>
<p>The result is a great triumph in protection, to which the commonwealth
of Colorado points with pride. To-day that State contains
a grand total of 7,482 sheep; and to-day the <i>wild</i> herds come down into
the streets of Ouray to be admired, and feted, and fed on hay and photographed.
And last September when an urgent official request came to
the State Game Warden for permission to kill six of Colorado’s mountain
sheep “for scientific purposes,” the proposal was declared impossible
without precipitating a riot of the populace.</p>
<p>The true big-horn ranges all the way from Pinacate Peak, in northwestern
Sonora, Old Mexico, northward about to Latitude 56 in British
Columbia and western Alberta. On the hot, black lava slopes of Pinacate,
fearfully lacking in vegetation, the sheep grow small. The species
culminates in southwestern Alberta, from the Waterton Lakes up to
Wilcox Pass. The biggest head ever shot by a gentleman sportsman, so
far as I know, had horns with a circumference of 17¾ inches; and the
lucky hunter was Mr. A. P. Proctor, the wild-animal sculptor.</p>
<p>In the United States there are eleven States that still contain wild
examples of mountain sheep, but in some cases the total number to a
State is painfully small. New Mexico contains only 23 head. Sheep
hunting is totally prohibited in all our States save two,—Wyoming and
Washington.</p>
<p>No, good reader, mountain sheep do <i>not</i> “jump off precipices and alight
safely on their horns.” They never did; and they never will. Their
necks are just as breakable as ours are.</p>
<h3><i>Mountain Goat</i></h3>
<p>In oddity and picturesqueness, the white mountain goat and the moose
are rivals; and it is hard to say which species is entitled to the championship.</p>
<p>Fortunately for him, the goat is not much sought by white men as food;
its head is not inordinately prized as a trophy, and therefore he will survive
on his wild and awesome summits long after the last sheep head has
gone to grace some hunter’s “den,” and its flesh has been devoured by
the golden eagles.</p>
<p>The mountain goat looks a bit like a snow-white pigmy buffalo with
small black horns, and long, shaggy hair. It carries its head low, and its
stick-like legs give it a stilted and awkward gait. Its shoulders, neck
and hindquarters are covered with long, coarse hair, and when the animal
is seen on a mountain-top the first
thought is: “How <i>very white</i> it is!”
I have compared a clean goatskin with
a snowbank, and the latter had only
one small point the advantage. The
goat’s hair shows just a very faint tinge
of pale yellow.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus07.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="248" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT</p> </div>
<p>The real home of the Rocky Mountain
goat is British Columbia, Alberta,
and Southern Alaska, but detachments
are even yet found sparingly in northwestern
Montana, Idaho and Washington.
The species should be introduced
in the Montana National Bison Range,
the Yellowstone Park, and a dozen
other places, particularly in Washington
and Oregon. It has plenty of
stamina, it breeds successfully in
captivity, and I believe that it can
survive and thrive in any mountain
region that is sufficiently cold and
<i>dry</i>. It can <i>not</i> endure rain in
winter! Everywhere in the United
States where this remarkable species
still survives, it should at once be
given complete protection. In Glacier
Park it is now almost a common
occurrence for visitors to see wild
mountain goats. I saw two myself, near the Sperry Glacier, in 1909,
and the flocks are undoubtedly much more numerous to-day.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus08a.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="256" alt="" /> <p class="caption">CARIBOU</p> <p class="caption">In its summer coat, with its antlers “in the velvet”</p>
</div>
<p>Mentally and temperamentally the mountain goat is a remarkable
animal. It seems to have no nerves! Under no circumstances does a goat
lose its head—until it has been shot. Only a few months ago (December
25, 1915) two badly rattled white-tailed deer jumped off the Croton Lake
railroad bridge on the Putnam Railroad, near New York, a distance down
of about 40 feet, and both were killed by the leap. Two mountain goats
would not have done that. They would have “stood pat” to the last
second, and waited to see what the locomotive really meant to do. Deer
and sheep are hysterical animals, and when cornered will leap off ledges
to certain death; but the goat, never! He stands at bay, and calmly
waits to see what will happen. That is why Mr. John M. Phillips, State
Game Commissioner of Pennsylvania, was able in 1905, at the risk of
his life, to obtain at a distance of eight feet the surpassingly fine photograph
shown herewith. Considering it in every way, I think that this
is the finest wild animal photograph I have ever seen, and surely one
of the best that has ever been made.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus08b.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="261" alt="" /> <p class="caption">CARIBOU FAWNS</p> <p class="caption">In the New York Zoological Park</p>
</div>
<p>I believe that the mountain goat
will be the last of the big-game species
of the open mountains of North America
to be exterminated by man. The sheep,
moose, caribou and musk-ox will go long
in advance of the ubiquitous goat. In
protected areas like Glacier Park and
the Elk River Game Preserve of southeast
British Columbia, the species should
endure for a century, or perhaps for two
centuries. Why not? In such protected
sanctuaries they should finally increase
to such an extent that the natural
overflow will make legitimate goat-hunting in the surrounding mountains.
I should be sorry to see goat-hunting become a lost art; for it is mighty
fascinating,—provided you stop with two goats and can return with a
clear conscience.</p>
<h3><i>The Caribou</i></h3>
<p>Europe and Asia have the reindeer, but North America has a truly
grand array of caribou species. In size and geography they range all the
way from the absurd little Peary caribou of Ellesmere Land, which looks
like a goat with deer antlers upon it, to the giant of the Cassiar Mountains,
known as Osborn’s caribou. Roughly speaking, our North American
species are divided by their antlers into two groups, the Woodland
and the Barren Ground. The important species of the latter are the
Greenland caribou, the Peary, the Barren Ground, the Grant and Kenai.
Of the Woodland group the leading species are the Newfoundland,
Canadian, Black-Faced, and Osborn’s. The gravure shown herewith
is a very fine presentation of the Canadian Woodland species from an oil
painting by Carl Rungius, now owned by the Duquesne Club, Pittsburgh.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus09a.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="291" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ELK</p> <p class="caption">Its antlers are “in the velvet”—only half developed.
The animal has its summer coat of hair</p>
</div>
<p>The Barren Ground caribou exists in
the greatest numbers of any mammalian
species, great or small, now inhabiting
the earth. The immense throngs that
have been seen by Warburton Pike,
C. J. Jones and others, while on their
annual southward migration, literally
stagger the imagination. Undoubtedly
there are millions of individuals, and
they offer a sharp commentary on the
ability of Nature to multiply her live
stock, and keep it up to the highest
standard, without any help from man.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus09b.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="146" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ELK HERD IN THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK</p> </div>
<p>Is it not a pleasing thought that
even in this age of universal slaughter
there is one big-game species that still
exists in millions, on our own continent? To-day the Barren Ground
caribou is protected by distance and the frost king. But this condition
is too bright to last. Ere long,—perhaps to-morrow,—the Canadians will
build a railroad from Fort Churchill, on Hudson Bay, straight through
the heart of the Barren Ground caribou range to the Arctic coast, and
then the ranks of the caribou will be depleted.</p>
<p>The caribou are members of the Deer Family, but one and all they
exhibit many unique features. Their antlers are flat, the females have
horns, their muzzles are large and square-ended, their feet are very
broad and spreading,—like snow-shoe hoofs,—and their heads are carried
low. The caribou gait is a swift, far-striding trot.</p>
<p>In the United States caribou are found at two points only: in Maine
and northern Idaho;—but we no longer guarantee the latter. South of
the Barren Grounds of northern Canada the best localities for caribou
are Newfoundland, the Cassiar Mountains, the Iskoot country of British
Columbia, the White River country of western Yukon Territory and
the Alaska Peninsula.</p>
<p>The Osborn caribou is a grand animal, every way considered. The
white Peary caribou, of Ellesmere Land, is very small, its head is more
deer-like than that of any other caribou, and it looks like a misfit white
deer with imitation caribou antlers upon its head. Unlike all other
members of the Deer Family, the female caribou has horns; but they are
small and weak.</p>
<h3><i>The Moose</i></h3>
<p>The moose is an animal as odd and picturesque as if it had come to
us straight from Wonderland. Walk between those colossal legs and under
that high-holden body, gaze on those snow-shovel antlers, consider the
amazing overhang of that
nose, and then say where an
equally amazing combination
can be found on this continent.</p>
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus10.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="279" alt="" /> <p class="right smaller">Copyright by The Knapp Co., N. Y.</p> <p class="caption">BULL MOOSE—THE CHALLENGE</p>
<p class="caption">From a painting by Belmore Browne</p>
</div>
<p>This animal is the Colossus
of the Deer Family. If his
wits were equal to his bulk,
no man with a gun ever would
see a live moose save through
binoculars, and we never
would acquire any antlers save
those discarded by the animal.
The homeliest members of the
Deer Family are its female
moose in calving time, beside
which warthogs and hippopotami
are sirens and sylphs.</p>
<p>A full-grown bull moose
in October or November is,
as we have already insinuated, a wonder. No
mammoth, nor mastodon, nor sabretoothed tiger
ever was any more so. I am glad that I have
lived in the day of that astounding beast. I
never yet really wished to kill a moose, even
though I have often been told that I should
shoot one, for the sake of my reputation as a
sportsman. But I never did. I would like to
see 100 moose in a week,—as I once came near
doing,—but I do not like the thought of
destroying a big bull moose.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus11.jpg" width-obs="252" height-obs="300" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ANTLERS OF “GIANT” ALASKAN MOOSE</p>
<p class="caption">In the Reed-McMillin Collection, New
York Zoological Park. The spread is
76 inches. Probably the finest pair
of moose antlers “in captivity”</p>
</div>
<p>The moose of the greatest horns and the
longest skulls are found in Alaska. The Kenai
Peninsula is for them the greatest of all places,
and there the grandest antlers have been produced.
The bull stands seven feet high at the
shoulders,—and no man ever yet has weighed a
whole adult animal,—so far as is known to this writer. The finest moose
picture ever made, by lens or by brush, is the great painting owned by the
New York Zoological Society, which was executed by Carl Rungius in
1915. The model that posed for that bull’s antlers hangs in the Reed-McMillin
collection of the National Heads and Horns, in the next room
to mine, and the road for the doubting Thomases is short and easy.</p>
<p>No; the moose does not prefer to live in thick timber; although in
Maine and northern Minnesota the timber of the moose is quite thick
enough for all practical purposes. The ideal home of the moose is burned-over
tracts of timber, wherein the brush grows rankly, the obstructing
trees are absent, and in running or traveling the moose has only to stride
over fallen trunks lying four feet high, and always about. The moose
is the only land animal now living on this continent that is physically
qualified, with a standing of 100 per cent, to travel fast over “down
timber” and get away with it.</p>
<p>We must admit that in eastern captivity the moose cannot thrive
anywhere south of Canada. The climate of New York city is like poison
to moose, caribou and antelope. The salt-laden rains of winter, at 32°
Fahrenheit are to blame. In New Brunswick, through wise laws rigidly
enforced, (as a rule) the moose are increasing, even though hunted every
year. In Maine, moose-hunting has been stopped. The great State game
preserve in northern Minnesota contains many hundred moose, quite well
protected. Strangest of all, there now are hundreds of moose in northwestern
Wyoming, where the species long has been absolutely protected,
and there are about 700 in the Yellowstone Park.</p>
<h3><i>The Musk-Ox</i></h3>
<p>During our own times, the Barren Ground musk-ox has been completely
exterminated throughout the region west of the Mackenzie River,
and also eastward from the Mackenzie for about 500 miles. Only seventy
years ago, or thereabouts,
herds of live
musk-ox were found
about fifty miles
southeast of Point
Borrow; but since
that time the species
has been exterminated
throughout
an area as long as
from New York to
Chicago.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus12.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="240" alt="" /> <p class="caption">MUSK-OX IN THE N. Y. ZOOLOGICAL PARK</p> </div>
<p>To me every living
musk-ox is a
source of continual
wonder. I am staggered by the fact that a warm-blooded animal, quite
sheep-like in its general nature and mode of life, and which lives well
in New York City, can survive and thrive and breed and be happy on
the most northerly land in the world. The fact that whole herds of
musk-ox can find food throughout the awful Arctic night, survive storms
of unbelievable violence and duration, and cold that the human mind
scarce can comprehend,—and voluntarily live under such conditions,—seems
almost beyond belief.</p>
<p>And yet here in New York, wet in winter and hot in summer, we keep
musk-ox comfortable in captivity for five years; and they do not suffer
from the heat as much as do the men who take care of them. A part of
our success is due to the fact that we keep our musk-ox <i>dry</i>, and never
allow cold rains to come upon them. They have not yet bred; and we
are at a loss to understand why.</p>
<p>A naturalist-historian given to light speaking might be tempted to
say that the two musk-ox species were developed and placed in the frozen
North for the support of explorers, and the promotion of geographic
knowledge. For example, without the musk-ox herds as a base, Peary
might never have attained the North Pole. It was he who killed and ate
a musk-ox at the most northerly point of land in the world,—the northeast
corner of Greenland. Whole herds of musk-ox have been killed and
eaten by hungry explorers and the Eskimos and their dogs. The flesh
of this animal should taste more like mutton than beef, but the man does
not live who could distinguish it from beef of the same age. Evidently
there are conditions under which a musk-ox bull has a perceptibly musky
odor, but I have never been able to detect the slightest trace of it in
any of the animals of my personal acquaintance.</p>
<p>There are two species. The <i>White-Fronted Musk-ox</i> has a broad band
of soiled white hair across its face, just below the horns; and it inhabits
Greenland and all the islands and lands westward thereof, down to the
mainland of North America. The <i>Barren Ground Musk-ox</i> is the one of
the Barren Grounds of northern Canada, and its lowest latitude is 64°,
at the head of Chesterfield Inlet, which is at the northwestern corner
of Hudson Bay.</p>
<p>Like nearly all the large land animals, the musk-ox is of gregarious
habit, and maintains itself in herds of small size, usually not exceeding
thirty or forty head. Its sharp, down-dropping horns seem to have been
specially designed by nature to puncture the hide of the big white arctic
wolf, which seeks big game at its farthest north. Whenever a musk-ox
herd is attacked by wolves, or by dogs, the adult bulls and cows immediately
form themselves into a hollow circle, with the calves inside; and
thus they stand literally shoulder to shoulder, facing outward with horns
at the “ready,” quite able to repel all attacks save those with firearms. If
a dog or wolf comes near enough to a musk-ox so that there appears to be
a chance to impale it, out rushes the musk-ox in a swift charge. Usually
the nimble footed canine escapes unharmed, and as soon as it is beyond
reach the musk-ox quickly returns to his place in the circle. The definiteness
and precision with which the charge is made and the return accomplished
shows a high degree of strategic intelligence; and thus is the
fittest enabled to survive.</p>
<p>The musk-ox has two coats of hair—a sweater and a rain-coat. The
sweater is of fine and dense fur, practically impervious to cold. The rain-coat
is a suit of rather long and rather coarse straight hair, which hangs
over and completely covers the inner coat, for the purpose of shedding
snow and rain. The body color of the animal is a rich chocolate brown, and
the legs are dull gray. Naturally one would expect to see a musk-ox provided
with a broad, spreading hoof, like the snow-shoe hoof of the caribou;
but this is not the case. The musk-ox hoof is rather small and compact.</p>
<p>Structurally this remarkable animal is half ox and half sheep,—just
as its generic name, <i>Ovibos</i>, implies. It has <i>no</i> visible tail, and its drooping
horns strongly resemble those of the Cape buffalo, of Africa.</p>
<p>For four years the New York Zoological Park has maintained the
only herd of musk-ox ever kept in captivity. It started in 1910 with six
animals, three of which still survive.</p>
<h3>SUPPLEMENTARY READING</h3>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/illus13.jpg" width-obs="300" height-obs="259" alt="" /> <p class="caption">A MUSK-OX</p> </div>
<table class="small" summary="Books">
<tr>
<td>THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY</td><td class="tdr"><i>By W. T. Hornaday</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE</td><td class="tdr"><i>By W. T. Hornaday</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS AND THEIR KIN</td><td class="tdr"><i>By M. Wright</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA</td><td class="tdr"><i>By G. O. Shields</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>OUR BIG GAME</td><td class="tdr"><i>By D. W. Huntington</i></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p class="center smaller">⁂ Information concerning the above books and articles may be
had on application to the Editor of The Mentor.</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figleft"> <ANTIMG src="images/book.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="40" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/book.jpg" width-obs="40" height-obs="40" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<h2>THE OPEN LETTER</h2></div>
<p>In about three weeks vacation days will
be over and the fall season for reading
clubs and home reading circles will begin.
There are hundreds of clubs using The
Mentor—some as their regular course for
the season, others as supplementary to
their own courses. During June we had
many demands from reading clubs for information
concerning The Mentor plans
for next year. This information was
wanted in most cases for use in club booklets
which were then in course of preparation.
In order to meet the needs of reading
clubs we prepare plans of The Mentor
far ahead. Our numbers for the year 1917
are already scheduled, and some of them
are in actual preparation. Our descriptive
booklet tells all about future as well as
past numbers.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>I do not think that the members of The
Mentor Association who are not active in
reading clubs appreciate what The Mentor
is doing for club work. We could
make up a book many times the size of
The Mentor simply out of the letters of
appreciation that we have received from
clubs all over the country bearing testimony
to the service that we give. The
following, just received, is a fair example:</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>“Some time ago you sent me a suggested
program for the study of South
America. The club of which I am president
has just voted to study that subject,
and they are following the program that
you laid out, and it is so much better
than anything that we could have laid
out for ourselves that it saves the program
committee a great deal of work.
We hardly see how you can afford to do
this, but we want to express our appreciation.”</p>
<p>This letter is really typical. A great
many ask us how we “can afford to do
this work” for nothing. Some offer to
pay. So let us make it clear now to every
member of The Mentor Association that
the preparation of special programs and
courses of reading is a regular part of The
Mentor Service, and that we give it freely
and gladly. The service includes other
things besides. We answer questions on
all kinds of subjects in the various fields
of knowledge. Our daily mail is heavy
with inquiries, and we give the questioners
the benefit of the knowledge and
experience of recognized authorities.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>Just another word about programs.
Some people do not understand what a
program for a reading club means. The
ordinary program is so slim and elementary
that there is no inspiration in it. We
prepare programs that contain the meat
of the subject in condensed form, and we
supply appropriate introductions to the
meetings, and suggest supplementary
reading matter. In special cases, such as
that of a music course, we furnish lists of
appropriate compositions to be played in
the meetings as illustrations. We make
programs on many subjects. Of course
we look forward to a time when it will not
be necessary for us to make special programs
on most subjects, because they will
be covered in The Mentor itself. At present
we supply a special program on South
America. This will not be necessary in
another year, for we shall have a series of
Mentors that will cover South America,
and they will supply all the material
necessary for clubs studying the subject.
The first number in the South American
series has just appeared, so Mentor readers
can judge of the character and scope
of these numbers.</p>
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/stars.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="19" alt="(decorative)" /></div>
<p>Write in at once and get our booklet
descriptive of The Mentor Service. In
this booklet we have arranged The Mentors
in special courses, suitable for any
number of meetings of a club, from three
up to twenty or thirty. We also give full
directions as to the use of The Mentor in
a reading club. Read this booklet and
you will find that The Mentor is not only a
source of pleasure and profit in its unit
form as it appears twice a month, but
that each unit is a stone in a rapidly growing
structure. There is no need of talking
about what it will look like when this
structure is completed, for of knowledge
there is no end. The Mentor institution
will simply go on growing. In three years
of existence, it has already come to assume
an impressive aspect with its array
of interesting departments, each rich in
information and beautiful illustration.
You will appreciate this if you send
for our book, and
read it.</p>
<div class="figright"> <ANTIMG src="images/signature.jpg" width-obs="200" height-obs="94" alt="(signature)" /> <p class="caption">W. D. Moffat<br/> <span class="smcap">Editor</span></p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate1.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="460" alt="" /> <p class="captionleft">FROM A PAINTING BY CARL RUNGIUS COPYRIGHT 1906</p> <p class="caption">ELK</p>
</div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">ELK</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">The American elk or wapiti (<i>Cervus canadensis</i>) is as large as
a horse, handsomely formed, luxuriantly maned, carries its
head proudly, and is crowned by a pair of very imposing
antlers. The male elk is at its handsomest in October or
November, when his skin is bright and immaculately clean
and his fine antlers have just been renewed.</p>
<p>The elk has small and shapely legs. It avoids swamps and low
ground and likes to frequent mountain parks. It is also a forest animal.
Formerly it ranged far out into the western edge of the great plains and
it was accustomed in summer to ascend the Rocky Mountains to the
very crest of the Continental Divide. To-day, however, it is abundant
in one locality only—the Yellowstone National Park and the country
immediately surrounding it. Elk are also found in small numbers in
Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, Idaho and on Vancouver Island,
British Columbia. However, elk are easily bred in confinement,
and many good herds have been established in great private game preserves.
In addition to these, there are many small herds in private
parks.</p>
<p>The elk sheds its antlers each year. The antlers of one of the largest
males in the New York Zoological Park dropped on March twenty-first
nine hours apart. On April 8th each budding antler looked like a big
brown tomato. Ten days later the new antlers were about five inches long,
thick and stumpy. By May 10th the elk was shedding its hair freely.
On June 18th the antlers were at full length. By August 1st the short
red summer coat of hair was established, and the antlers were still “in
velvet,” The elk then began to rub the velvet from its antlers against
the trees.</p>
<p>By September 15th the summer coat of the elk herd had been completely
shed. On October 1st the entire herd was at its best. All
antlers were clean and perfect. The hair of the skin was long, full and
rich in color. This is the mating season of the elk when the bulls are
aggressive and dangerous.</p>
<p>Elk are often very unsuspicious and at times so stupid that hunting
them is not so exhilarating a sport as it might seem.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate2.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="457" alt="" /> <p class="captionleft">FROM PHOTOGRAPH BY CARL RUNGIUS</p> <p class="caption">MOUNTAIN SHEEP</p>
</div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">MOUNTAIN SHEEP</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number One In The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">The mountain sheep (genus <i>Ovis</i>) is a gallant mountaineer. It
is a fine, sturdy animal, keen eyed, bold, active and strong,
and is always found amid scenery that is grand and inspiring.
Its favorite pastures in summer are the treeless slopes above
the timber-line; and even in winter, when the raging storms
drive the elk and deer down into the valleys, the mountain sheep descends
for only a short distance. The mountain sheep is a bold climber. Its
legs are robust and strong, and when pursued it can dash down steep
declivities in safety.</p>
<p>It is very easy to recognize any adult mountain sheep by the massive
round curving horns. No wild animals other than wild sheep have
circling horns.</p>
<p>The largest of specimens of wild sheep are found in Asia. There are
six species in America. They are scattered from the northern states of
Mexico through the Rocky Mountains, almost to the shore of the Arctic
zone.</p>
<p>The young of the mountain sheep are born in May or June above the
timber-line if possible, among the most dangerous and inaccessible crags
and precipices that the mother can find. The lamb’s most dangerous
enemy is the eagle, and often the mother cannot protect her young from
this foe.</p>
<p>Probably the most familiar of the mountain sheep is the big-horn or
Rocky Mountain sheep (<i>Ovis canadensis</i>). Formerly this was quite
abundant, but so persistently has it been hunted that the species exists
now only in small numbers and in widely separated localities.</p>
<p>The general color of the big-horn is gray brown. They are well fed
all the year round. The female has not the long curving horns of the
male. Her horns are small, short, erect, and much flattened, in length
from five to eight inches.</p>
<p>Other species of mountain sheep are the California or Nelson’s mountain
sheep (<i>Ovis nelsoni</i>) a smaller animal than the big-horn and of a
pale salmon gray color; the Mexican mountain sheep (<i>Ovis mexicanus</i>)
found in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico; the white mountain sheep or
Dall’s sheep (<i>Ovis dalli</i>) of Alaska, whose hair is pure white, when it
has not been stained by mud or dirt; the black mountain sheep
(<i>Ovis stonei</i>) of northern British Colombia, which is distinguishable
by the wide spread of its horns, the dark brown color of its sides and the
white abdomen; and Fannin’s mountain sheep (<i>Ovis fannini</i>) a newly
discovered species which was found first on the Klondike River, Alaska,
in 1900.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate3.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="460" alt="" /> <p class="caption">ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT</p> </div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">ROCKY MOUNTAIN GOAT</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">The Rocky Mountain goat, or the white goat (<i>Oreamnos
montanus</i>), is the only American representation of the many
species of wild goat-like animals so numerous throughout the
Old World. Its habitat extends from northwestern Montana
to the head of Cook Inlet, but it is not found in the interior
nor in the Yukon Valley. It is one of the most picturesque and interesting
wild animals on the continent of North America. It ranges on
the grassy belt of the high mountains just above the timber-line. It
seems to like particularly the dangerous ice-covered slopes over which
only the boldest hunters dare to follow it. On the coast of British Columbia,
however, the white goat sometimes descends very near to tide water.</p>
<p>The white goat is odd in appearance. At first glance it seems to be
a slow, clumsy creature; in fact, it is the most expert and daring rock
climber of all American hoofed animals. The hoofs are small, angular
and very compact and consist of a combination of rubber-pad inside and
knife-edge outside to hold the goat equally well on snow, ice or bare
rock. It is said that goats will cross walls of rock which neither man,
dog nor mountain sheep would dare attempt to pass. Sometimes they
walk along the face of a precipice of apparently smooth rock; yet in
doing so they frequently look back and turn around whenever they feel
so inclined. The white goat is built something on the order of a small
American bison. Its head is carried low and the horns are small and
short. Its hair is yellowish-white. Next to the skin is a thick coat of
fine wool through which grows a long outside thatch of coarse hair.</p>
<p>It is an animal of phlegmatic temperament. A story has been told
of one goat, whose “partner” had been shot, which deliberately sat down
a short distance away and watched the hunter skin and cook a portion
of his dead mate.</p>
<p>Its flesh is musky and dry and it is not palatable to white men except
when they are exceedingly hungry. Its skin has no commercial value.
For these reasons and also because it is hard to reach, the Rocky Mountain
goat is not likely to be exterminated very soon.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate4.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="460" alt="" /> <p class="captionleft">FROM A PAINTING BY CARL RUNGIUS COPYRIGHT 1904</p> <p class="caption">CARIBOU</p>
</div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">CARIBOU</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-w.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">With the exception of the musk-ox, the caribou is the most
northerly of all hoofed animals. This animal not only roams
on the vast Arctic waste above Great Slave Lake, known as
the Barren Grounds, but it also ranges over the west coast of
Greenland, along the edge of the great ice cap and perhaps
over the entire coast of Greenland. Wherever the naked ridges and
valleys yield it food, the caribou may be found.</p>
<p>The caribou is a rather odd-looking creature. It is interesting to
note that Nature has provided it with a body especially made to enable
it to brave the terrors of a frigid climate. Its legs are thick and strong
and its hoofs are expanded and flattened until they form very good snowshoes.
Where a moose sinks in, a caribou is able to walk over snowfields
and quaking marshes. The skin of the caribou is covered with a thick,
closely matted coat of fine hair; through this grows the coarse hair of
the rain-coat. This makes a very warm covering—in fact the warmest
on any hoofed animal except the musk-ox. It is like a thick, felt mat.</p>
<p>The caribou is the American reindeer. It has antlers, long and
branching. As a species they may be grouped under two heads—the
Woodland caribou (<i>Rangifer tarandus caribou</i>) and the barren ground
caribou (<i>Rangifer tarandus articus</i>). Each of these two groups may be
sub-divided several times. However, it is difficult to distinguish these
sub-species. The chief characteristics are minor differences in the antlers,
but even here great difficulties are encountered. The antlers are
subject to thousands of variations, and as a result no two pairs ever are
found exactly alike. It has been said that if ten pairs of adult antlers
of each of the so-called nine species were mixed in one heap, it would be
almost impossible for even an expert to separate them all correctly into
their proper groups.</p>
<p>Of the two great groups, the Woodland caribou roams through the
pine and spruce forests and also the prairies of Newfoundland, Nova
Scotia, New Brunswick, Northern Maine, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba.
It is a large animal with strength enough to vanquish the strongest
man in about one minute. Its shoulders are sharp and high, and its
head is held low and thrust straight forward. The Woodland caribou
of Maine has a body color of bluish brown and gray. In October, however,
its new coat is of the color known as seal brown. Its antlers are
short and have more than thirty points. As a whole the antlers have the
appearance of a tree-top.</p>
<p>The barren ground caribou is extremely like the average reindeer of
Siberia and Lapland. It is a rather small animal with immense antlers.
The center of their abundance to-day is midway between the eastern end
of Great Slave Lake and the southeastern extremity of Great Bear Lake.</p>
<p>The natural food of the caribou is moss and lichens. In captivity
very few survive many months without a regular diet of moss. Full
grown Woodland caribou consume about seven pounds of it daily.</p>
<p>It is only necessary to watch a caribou walking to see in this animal
the true born traveler. This is one of the most peculiar characteristics
of the species. At stated periods in the spring and autumn they assemble
in immense herds and migrate with the compactness and definiteness
of purpose of an army of cavalry on the march. This is most noticeable
on the Canadian Barren Grounds. The herd moves northward in spring
and in the early winter moves southward. Several of these monster
migrations have been witnessed.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate5.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="458" alt="" /> <p class="captionleft">FROM A PAINTING BY CARL RUNGIUS COPYRIGHT 1906</p> <p class="caption">BULL MOOSE</p>
</div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">BULL MOOSE</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-i.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">Imagine an animal standing between six and seven feet
high at the shoulders, its legs four feet long, its neck and
body covered with a heavy thatch of coarse, purplish gray
hair, and its huge head crowned with massive antlers spreading
from five to six feet in width! That is the moose (<i>Alces
americanus</i>). It is the largest animal of the deer family. The only
way to appreciate a moose is to see an adult animal alive and full of
strength, striding through the forests of Canada or Alaska.</p>
<p>The word moose is a North American Indian name which is said to
mean “cropper” or “trimmer,” from the animal’s habits of feeding on
the branches of trees. The moose can be recognized by its broad,
square-ended, overhanging nose, its high hump on the shoulders, its
long, coarse, smoky gray hair, and the antlers of the male, which are
enormously flattened and expanded. Moose are found in northern
Maine, and some other parts of the Northern States, Canada and
Alaska.</p>
<p>It is hard to kill a moose. Most of those killed are shot from ambush.
In the autumn months the moose hunter may sometimes make a horn of
birch bark and, concealing himself beside a pond at nightfall, may by
imitating the call of the cow moose attract a bull within shooting distance.</p>
<p>The moose calf is born in May and is at first a grotesque looking creature
with long, loose jointed legs and an abnormally short body. By the
time the calf is a year old it has taken on the colors of adult life.</p>
<p>Unlike most members of the Deer Family, the moose does not graze.
It eats the bark, twigs and leaves of certain trees, and also moss and
lichens. It is strictly a forest animal and is never found on open, treeless
plains. Being very fond of still water, it frequents small lakes and
ponds.</p>
<p>One of the largest bull moose on record was seven feet high at the
shoulders and had a girth of eight feet. The largest pair of antlers
recorded have a spread, at the widest point, of 78 inches. The weight
of the antlers and the dry skull together is 93 pounds.</p>
<p>The bull moose has under the throat a long strip of skin called a
“bell.” In the adult male animal this bell is sometimes a foot in length
The female moose has no antlers, and out of every thousand females
only one has a bell.</p>
<p>In captivity the moose is docile, and affectionate. They have even
been trained to drive in harness. But owing to the peculiar nature
of their digestive organs, they cannot live long upon ordinary grass or
hay. Green grass is fatal to them.</p>
<p>During the deep snows of winter moose herd together in sheltered
spots in the forest. They move about in a small area and by treading
down the snow form what is called a “moose yard.”</p>
<p>The Alaskan moose has been described as a new species (<i>Alces gigas</i>).
It is said to be a giant in size. Ideas of this animal are greatly exaggerated,
although it is true that its antlers are really immense.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/plate6.jpg" width-obs="650" height-obs="459" alt="" /> <p class="caption">THE BISON LEADER</p> </div>
<h2>Game Animals of America<br/> <span class="smaller">AMERICAN BISON</span></h2>
<p class="centerbold">Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course</p>
<div>
<ANTIMG class="dropcap" src="images/dropcap-fancy-t.jpg" width-obs="100" height-obs="100" alt="" /></div>
<p class="dropcap">The American bison or buffalo (<i>Bison americanus</i>) because of
its great size and imposing appearance, is the most celebrated
of all American hoofed animals. It has been practically
exterminated, but now that it is given adequate protection,
the buffalo, which breeds rapidly in captivity, has
been saved from total disappearance.</p>
<p>The buffalo was first seen by white men in Anahuac, the Aztec
capital of Mexico, in 1521, when Cortez and his men paid their first
visit to the menagerie of King Montezuma. It was first seen in its
wild state by a shipwrecked Spanish sailor in southern Texas in 1530.</p>
<p>Once the buffalo roamed over fully one-third of the entire continent
of North America. Not only did it inhabit the plains of the West, but
also the hilly forests of the Appalachian region, the northern plains of
Mexico, the Rocky Mountains, and even the bleak and barren plains of
western Canada. The center of abundance, however, was the great
plains lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi Valley.</p>
<p>In May, 1871, Col. R. I. Dodge drove for twenty-five miles along
the Arkansas River through an unbroken herd of buffaloes. According
to Dr. Hornaday’s calculation, he actually saw nearly half a million head.
This was the great southern herd on its annual spring migration northward.
Altogether it must have contained about three and a half million
animals. In those days mighty hosts of buffaloes frequently stopped or
even derailed railway trains, and obstructed the progress of boats on the
Missouri and Yellowstone rivers.</p>
<p>When the Union Pacific railway was completed in 1869, the buffaloes
were divided into a northern herd and a southern herd. By 1875 the
southern herd had been practically annihilated. Five years later the
completion of the Northern Pacific railway led to a grand attack upon the
northern herd. Three years later this was almost entirely wiped out.</p>
<p>The future of the buffalo depends upon the National herds and
ranges, of which the United States has six game preserves. In zoological
parks this animal becomes sluggish and rapidly deteriorates from the
vigorous standard of the wild stock.</p>
<p>The largest buffalo ever measured by a naturalist is the old bull
which was shot by Dr. Hornaday on December 6, 1886, in Montana,
and which now stands as the most prominent figure in the mounted group
in the United States National Museum. This is the animal whose picture
adorns the ten dollar bill of the United States currency. The
height of this buffalo at the shoulders was 5 feet, 8 inches, and its length
of head and body to the root of the tail was 10 feet, 2 inches. Its estimated
weight was 2,100 pounds.</p>
<p>The buffalo begins to shed its faded and weather-beaten winter coat
of hair in March. For the next three months he is a forlorn looking
creature. By October, however, the new coat is well along, and in November
and December the animal is at its best.</p>
<p>Buffalo calves are born in May and June. At first they are a brick
red color, but this coat is usually shed in October.</p>
<p>The flesh of the buffalo very closely resembles domestic beef. In
fact, it is impossible to distinguish the difference.</p>
<p class="center smaller">BASED ON MATERIAL DRAWN FROM “THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY,” COPYRIGHT
1904, BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY</p>
<p class="center smaller">ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 4. No. 13. SERIAL No. 113</p>
<hr class="chap" />
<div class="bbox-dashed">
<h2><span class="smcap">The Mentor Association</span></h2>
<div class="blockquote">
<p>ESTABLISHED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A POPULAR INTEREST
IN ART, LITERATURE, SCIENCE, HISTORY, NATURE, AND TRAVEL</p>
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<p>CONTRIBUTORS—PROF. JOHN C. VAN DYKE, HAMILTON W. MABIE, PROF. ALBERT
BUSHNELL HART, REAR ADMIRAL ROBERT E. PEARY, WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, DWIGHT L.
ELMENDORF, HENRY T. FINCK, WILLIAM WINTER, ESTHER SINGLETON, PROF. G. W. BOTSFORD,
IDA M. TARBELL, GUSTAV KOBBE, DEAN C. WORCESTER, JOHN K. MUMFORD, W. J.
HOLLAND, LORADO TAFT, KENYON COX, E. H. FORBUSH, H. E. KREHBIEL, SAMUEL ISHAM,
BURGES JOHNSON, STEPHEN BONSAL, JAMES HUNEKER, W. J. HENDERSON, AND OTHERS.</p>
<p>The purpose of The Mentor Association is to give its members, in an
interesting and attractive way, the information in various fields of
knowledge which everybody wants to have. The information is imparted
by interesting reading matter, prepared under the direction of leading
authorities, and by beautiful pictures, produced by the most highly perfected
modern processes.</p>
<p class="center">THE MENTOR IS PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH</p>
<p>BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC., AT 52 EAST NINETEENTH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.
SUBSCRIPTION, THREE DOLLARS A YEAR. FOREIGN POSTAGE 75 CENTS EXTRA. CANADIAN
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H. BECK; VICE-PRESIDENT, WALTER P. TEN EYCK; SECRETARY, W. D. MOFFAT; TREASURER,
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<hr class="tb" />
<h3>COMPLETE YOUR MENTOR LIBRARY</h3>
<p class="center">Subscriptions always begin with the current issue. The following numbers of The Mentor Course,
already issued, will be sent postpaid at the rate of fifteen cents each.</p>
<ul>
<li class="smaller">Serial<br/>No.</li>
<li>1. Beautiful Children in Art</li>
<li>2. Makers of American Poetry</li>
<li>3. Washington, the Capital</li>
<li>4. Beautiful Women in Art</li>
<li>5. Romantic Ireland</li>
<li>6. Masters of Music</li>
<li>7. Natural Wonders of America</li>
<li>8. Pictures We Love to Live With</li>
<li>9. The Conquest of the Peaks</li>
<li>10. Scotland, the Land of Song and Scenery</li>
<li>11. Cherubs in Art</li>
<li>12. Statues With a Story</li>
<li>13. Story of America in Pictures: The Discoverers</li>
<li>14. London</li>
<li>15. The Story of Panama</li>
<li>16. American Birds of Beauty</li>
<li>17. Dutch Masterpieces</li>
<li>18. Paris, the Incomparable</li>
<li>19. Flowers of Decoration</li>
<li>20. Makers of American Humor</li>
<li>21. American Sea Painters</li>
<li>22. Story of America in Pictures: The Explorers</li>
<li>23. Sporting Vacations</li>
<li>24. Switzerland: The Land of Scenic Splendors</li>
<li>25. American Novelists</li>
<li>26. American Landscape Painters</li>
<li>27. Venice, the Island City</li>
<li>28. The Wife in Art</li>
<li>29. Great American Inventors</li>
<li>30. Furniture and Its Makers</li>
<li>31. Spain and Gibraltar</li>
<li>32. Historic Spots of America</li>
<li>33. Beautiful Buildings of the World</li>
<li>34. Game Birds of America</li>
<li>35. Story of America in Pictures: The Contest for North America</li>
<li>36. Famous American Sculptors</li>
<li>37. The Conquest of the Poles</li>
<li>38. Napoleon</li>
<li>39. The Mediterranean</li>
<li>40. Angels in Art</li>
<li>41. Famous Composers</li>
<li>42. Egypt, the Land of Mystery</li>
<li>43. Story of America in Pictures; The Revolution</li>
<li>44. Famous English Poets</li>
<li>45. Makers of American Art</li>
<li>46. The Ruins of Rome</li>
<li>47. Makers of Modern Opera</li>
<li>48. Dürer and Holbein</li>
<li>49. Vienna, the Queen City</li>
<li>50. Ancient Athens</li>
<li>51. The Barbizon Painters</li>
<li>52. Abraham Lincoln</li>
<li>53. George Washington</li>
<li>54. Mexico</li>
<li>55. Famous American Women Painters</li>
<li>56. The Conquest of the Air</li>
<li>57. Court Painters of France</li>
<li>58. Holland</li>
<li>59. Our Feathered Friends</li>
<li>60. Glacier National Park</li>
<li>61. Michelangelo</li>
<li>62. American Colonial Furniture</li>
<li>63. American Wild Flowers</li>
<li>64. Gothic Architecture</li>
<li>65. The Story of the Rhine</li>
<li>66. Shakespeare</li>
<li>67. American Mural Painters</li>
<li>68. Celebrated Animal Characters</li>
<li>69. Japan</li>
<li>70. The Story of the French Revolution</li>
<li>71. Rugs and Rug Making</li>
<li>72. Alaska</li>
<li>73. Charles Dickens</li>
<li>74. Grecian Masterpieces</li>
<li>75. Fathers of the Constitution</li>
<li>76. Masters of the Piano</li>
<li>77. American Historic Homes</li>
<li>78. Beauty Spots of India</li>
<li>79. Etchers and Etching</li>
<li>80. Oliver Cromwell</li>
<li>81. China</li>
<li>82. Favorite Trees</li>
<li>83. Yellowstone National Park</li>
<li>84. Famous Women Writers of England</li>
<li>85. Painters of Western Life</li>
<li>86. China and Pottery of Our Forefathers</li>
<li>87. The Story of The American Railroad</li>
<li>88. Butterflies</li>
<li>89. The Philippines</li>
<li>90. Great Galleries of The World: The Louvre</li>
<li>91. William M. Thackeray</li>
<li>92. Grand Canyon of Arizona</li>
<li>93. Architecture in American Country Homes</li>
<li>94. The Story of The Danube</li>
<li>95. Animals in Art</li>
<li>96. The Holy Land</li>
<li>97. John Milton</li>
<li>98. Joan Of Arc</li>
<li>99. Furniture of the Revolutionary Period</li>
<li>100. The Ring of the Nibelung</li>
<li>101. The Golden Age of Greece</li>
<li>102. Chinese Rugs</li>
<li>103. The War of 1812</li>
<li>104. Great Galleries of the World: The National Gallery, London</li>
<li>105. Masters of the Violin</li>
<li>106. American Pioneer Prose Writers</li>
<li>107. Old Silver</li>
<li>108. Shakespeare’s Country</li>
<li>109. Historic Gardens of New England</li>
<li>110. The Weather</li>
<li>111. American Poets of the Soil</li>
<li>112. Argentina</li>
</ul>
<p class="center">NUMBERS TO FOLLOW</p>
<ul>
<li>September 1, RAPHAEL. <i>By Prof. John C. Van
Dyke, Rutgers College.</i></li>
<li>September 15, WALTER SCOTT. <i>By Hamilton W.
Mabie. Author and Editor.</i></li>
</ul>
<p class="center">THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.</p>
<p class="center">52 EAST 19th STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y.</p>
</div>
<hr class="chap" />
<p class="center larger">THE MENTOR</p>
<h2>THE MENTOR LIBRARY</h2>
<p>Back numbers of The Mentor are as valuable
now as at the date of issue. Each individual
copy goes to form a cumulative library—The
Mentor Library—comprising a collection of facts indispensable
to any one who wants to be well informed.</p>
<p>In attractiveness, The Mentor Library cannot be
surpassed. By graphically and vividly depicting interesting
persons, places, events, and works of art, it makes
it easy for you to accumulate a growing store of “worth
while” knowledge.</p>
<h3>An Opportunity to Complete Your Mentor Library</h3>
<p>All but a few of our members have already completed
their sets. Some, however, have delayed. This
announcement is intended for these few. Please act
quickly, for you may not have another opportunity to
procure all the previous issues on these special terms.</p>
<table class="small" summary="Issue prices">
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<td>Issues Nos. 1 to 110 inclusive</td><td class="tdr">$16.50</td>
</tr>
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<p class="center larger">Payable $1 on Receipt of Bill and $2 Monthly</p>
<p>SEND NO MONEY NOW! Merely assure your being
among the possessors of complete Mentor Libraries by
sending us your name and address, together with a
statement of the issues that you desire.</p>
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<p class="center">THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION</p>
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<p class="center larger">MAKE THE SPARE<br/>
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