r, Colo.) for August, 1912, contains an
excellent article by Dr. W.B. Shore, entitled, "Trapping and Shipping
Elk." I wish I could reprint it entire, for the solid information that
it contains. It gives a clear and comprehensive account of last spring's
operations by the Government and by the state of Montana in capturing
and shipping elk from the Yellowstone Park herd, for the double purpose
of diminishing the elk surplus in the Park and stocking vacant ranges
elsewhere.

The operations were conducted on the same basis as the shipping of
cattle--the corral, the chute, the open car, and the car-load in bulk.
Dr. Shore states that the undertaking was really no more difficult than
the shipping of range cattle; but the presence of a considerable
proportion of young and tender calves, such as are never handled with
beef cattle, led to 8.8 per cent of deaths in transit. The deaths and
the percentage are nothing at which to be surprised, when it is
remembered, that the animals had just come through a hard winter, and
their natural vitality was at the lowest point of the year.

The following is a condensed summary of the results of the work:

Number of Hours on Killed or Died After
Destination Elk Road Died in Car Unloading

1 Car. Startup, Washington 60: calves, 94 11 7
yearlings
and two-year
olds
1 " Hamilton, Montana 43: cows & 30 4 1
calves
1 " Thompson Falls,
Montana 40 -- 2 O
1 " Stephensville,
Montana 36 -- 1 1
1 " Deer Lodge, Montana 40 24 2 O
1 " Hamilton, Montana 40 -- O O
1 " Mt. Vernon,
Washington 46 4 days; 7 O
unloaded &
fed twice
--- -- -
305 27 9

The total deaths in transit and after, of 36 elk out of 305, amounted to
11.4 per cent.

All those shipped to Montana points were shipped by the state of
Montana.

In order to provide adequate winter grazing grounds for the
Y