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Show MAN IS A DESTROYER HOW WHO ANIMAL LIFE IS SNUFFED OUT BY CIVILIZATION. Tha Bnflnlo Ktlsta Only Curiosity, and th Heal Ha; Soon nerorao Thing uf the rat The War oa th. . Whnle and Dfcr luili.ir to many old men, but are little known to "t younger generation, save ai they ie seen in zoological gardens and lnewi.Terics. (Jf these are tho limine, the elk ami antelope, the panther and grizzly bear. Horns of .tho stag li.ivo been found with a spread of nine feet, but specimens of tlie magnificent animal to which they belong are comparatively rare. The chamois and the pretty wild goat of the Alps still exist in tho European Euro-pean fiiunii, but their destruction is only a question of time. It-is now conclusively proved tint man was already in existence during tho epoch bi which elephants were clothed with a thick fleece, ai;d tln mastodon, rhinoceros, tapirs, huge bisons and a genera of gigantic sloth as large as Hons were found in North America. Sp.vi-mens Sp.vi-mens of their bones liavelieen discovered in New Jersey, and of tlu camel and horse it has been demons; rated that, they reached the highest dcvtj.ipmcnt on this continent before their sage into Asia. The great wild ox ofj Europe has left abundant remains in Juo bottoms of water courses, peat lg.g and caves. Tho animal's size surpassed by a third that of the domestic breeds'. -They have," said Cnwnr in di scribing the Her-cynian Her-cynian forest (a vast range of wooded mountain? in Germany), "a stature little lit-tle below that of elephants. In appear- T IS but a tew years ago that a train of cars on the Union Pacific railroad was brought to u standstill by an immense herd of buffaloes that blocked tho track. Massed solidly as- far as tho e y o c o u 1 d reach, they constituted con-stituted u living barrier that not even one of the most powerful forces controlled by man could move. Yet today tho buffalo iscomimr-titively iscomimr-titively extinct. The herd of millions lias dwindled to two or three hundred, while the warm hide that once could bo i had almost for the asking has taken its 1 place among the rare and costly furs of commerce. Men feel well rewarded if from a nucleus of two or three they can propagate even a few of the species. The cupidity and love of ' destruction that ; characterize the human race have caused ! u loss that is incalculable, and it is safe I to say that to iheiu may bo directly i traced otie origin of modern Indian troubles, the savage's loss of his former source of food supply. Next in Importance to the buffalo is the seal, jiow rapidly diminishing in numbers, not by reason of any natural law of destruction, but because killing goes on without sufficient regard to tho ultimate interests of trade. Of the millions mill-ions that abounded along the northern coasts within the memory of man, it is estimated that less than 200,000 remain, the lance and club of the hunter having exterminated the rest. In the latitude of Behring strait there formerly existed another animal similar simi-lar to the seal, commonly known as the sea cow. It attained a length of from nine to sixteen feet, and was valuable val-uable to the northern tribes, especially I SPEARINO THlt WHALE. ance, color and form they are like ' bulls. Of great swiftness and extremely powerful, they spare neither men nor beasts when seen. Those who kill many of them display their bonis publicly in i proof and receive great applause." The buffalo, classically termed bubalns, is a native of Asia, and long ago was known to the Greeks, being plainly designated des-ignated in the writings of Seneca and Pliny. Many birds, remarkable either for great size or exceptional peculiarities in conformation, have disappeared. Incapable In-capable of flight and confined to islands, they were unable to escape the attacks of man. Among these is the dodo, which in the early part of the Sixteenth ceutnry was discovered on the islands of the Indian ocean, and has furnished mod- ern authors a theme for numberless writings. writ-ings. It exceeded the swan in size and presented the most extraordinary appearance. ap-pearance. It had a massive body, supported sup-ported on thick, short legs like pillars, a swollen neck, a round head set off by fringe of feathers brought forward over the face like a hoed, grijat black eyes ringed with whe and a luige bill that has been compad to tp-o sjioons laid with the hollow of the 'bowls against each other. Its wings were rudimentary and could be used for nothing, and its tail was a mere tuft Buffon, the naturalist, nat-uralist, likened it to a turtle muffled in a bird's skin. The' Dutch navigators killed the dodo with a club, and the meat furnished a large part of the cr- w's provisions, A living, specimen was ex- FATE OF THE BUFFALO. the 3F.quimaux, the flesh being acceptable accepta-ble food, and the skin being used in th manufacture of canoes. Yet the pursuit pur-suit of these animals has been followed unceasingly until they are now nothing but a memory. They were distinguished by "a bare skin, black in color and wrinkled like the bark of an oak, and a mustache with hairs as thick as the quill of a' pigeon's feather." hibited in London about the year 16HH, and the last evidence of its existence dates in 1881. On the shores of the arctic regions in past ages abounded the great auks, fitted fit-ted for swimming, but unable to fly. They have been annihilated. At a date nearer our own period the auk was found ou the banks of Newfoundland and in Lapland anil Greenland; "but for thirty or forty years not a singlo one has been seen anywhere, and the few stuffed figures fig-ures preserved in museums of natural history are regarded as objects of value. The bird is the size of tho goose, having the upper part of its body velvet black, its throat shaded with brown, and its lower parts white. In former times the great auk furnished the people of the north with a largo part of their food, and thousands of the bones aro yet found splintered, scratched and gnawed among the refuse heaps of the inhabitants who, like their birds, have passed awny. Felix G. de Fontaine. Like the seal, these harmless animals delighted in herding together. They browsed along the shores like cattle in the fields, and when satisfied came to the beach to rest -and bask in the sunshine. All that we know of this animal's history has been handed down by the memoir of Steller, .the naturalist and physician, who accompanied Behring on his voyage to the northwest of America, and on the wreck of the ship and death of his commander com-mander named Behring strait in his honor. Long continued pursuit has likewise nearly exterminated the whale, which, less than a century ago, was the object of profitable ventures. Whalers, like the sealers, not content with the capture of old cetaceans, took younger ones of little i value, and consequently the "visible snp- I ply" suffered marked decrease. The beaver, not only interesting from ' it habits, but valuable for the products it yielded to commerce and manufact- V--..,r-,- HUNTING DOWN . THE MOOSE, ures, was abundant in France and cen tral Europe down to the Middle Ages but its existence in former haunts is almost al-most unknown. In the early part of the century the Vaver abounded in North America, and the traces of ite industry are yet to be seen along the banks of streams in the west, notably among the Ro:ky mountains. Like the otter and other of its species, the animal is rapidly disappearing, and flourishes only in the ! portions of Canada and the northwest1 where man has not yet begun his ravages. rav-ages. ' ' In early days deer roamed in herds through the American forests. Now they are to be found only as single specimens, spec-imens, and notwithstanding the laws that seek to protect them they are rap- ! idly falling before the rifle of the huntsman. hunts-man. Every one who visits a museum of natural history experiences surprise at tho number of animals of enormous size that belong to species now extinct or rare, aud yet similar in their general characteristics to forms that exist. Other specimens comprise animals that are fv- - -i'ff'- y y.' - . , |