Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1889 — IT IS AVLLEY OF DEATH. [ARTICLE]

IT IS AVLLEY OF DEATH.

A Ravine in Yellowstone Park Where Game 1s Asphyxiated. San Francisco Chronicle. “In Yellowstone Park there ia a ravine that proves as deadly to animal Hfe as that Heath Valiev of Java, where wild beasts perish by the score,” said Henry W. Mclntyre at the Palace Hold last night. The gentleman was connected with the party who surveyed the reservation, finusr the leadership of Arnold Hague, the park geologist. While following the streams to trace the extinct hot springe the explorers reached a ravine in which the bones ;of many animals, bears, deer, rabbits and squirrels, were found. The presence of the remains caused the party much wonder, and a solution of the strange affair was fonnd only when a crow that had been seen to fly from the side of the valley to a carcass that was yet fresh lit on itswey, and almost immediately fell toThe ground. “The death of the bird,” continued Mr, Me Intyre, “was caused by gaseous exhalations, whose presence in the "park had ueen before unsuspected. 'The larger game also met its death by inhaling the deadly gas. The ravine is in the northeastern part of the park, in the vicinity of the mining Camp of Cook Creek, and not far from the line of the mail route. All about this region gaseous exhalations are given off 1 , which sulphurous deposits. In the almost extinct hot-apring area of Soda Butte, Lamar River and Cache and creeks the ravine was found. This region is rarely visited, although it is an admirable spot for game, which, however, goes unmolested by man, the laws agkinst hunting being very severe. The road to the valley has 4eW attractions, and the visitors to the Fossil forests and Hindoo basin seldom make the trip. In the centre of a meadow, reached by an old elk trail, is a shallow depression that was once the bed of a hot spring pool. This is now dry and is covered with a slight deposit of salt, and that is the bait that attracts the elk and other game of the region. The ‘lick’ extends for seventy-five yards up the ravine and is thicker and more palpable toward the upper end. The creek runs past along the side of the valley ancLboils and bubbles as if it were the outlet of a hot spring. But the water is cold and the disturbance in its surface is caused by the emissions of gas, mainly carbonic acid. It also contains sulphur, as particles of that are seen on the sides of the creek. As we went up the stream the odor of sulphur became very strong and caused irritation of the bronchial passages. About eighty yards above Cache Creek were the bones of a large bear and nearby was a smaller grizzly decomposed, but with the skin and hair yet fresh. Only a short distance farther on were the skeletons of many more animals, such as elk and deer and other large game. Squirrels, rabbits, birds and insects were lying about in quantities, and the ravine looked as if it had been the ‘scoop’ of a drive into which the animals of the park had been hunted and had there been left to die of hunger out of mere wantonness. There were no wounds apparent on the [bodies before us, all the animals had been -asphyxiated by the deadly gases that hung a few feet from the surface of the gulch in a dense, palpable curtail^. “The first bear we saw was a good way down the guich, where a neck is formed. To that point the gas mast have been driven by the wind, and its deadly nature may be easily guessed when it is remembered that the slightest motion causes a diffusion of ether that would tend to decrease its noxious properties. Here is the explanation of the oft-repeated assertion that game was being exterminated by hnnters in the Yellowstone, notwithstanding the stringent laws that had been passed for the protection of animals there, I had seen it noted that each year bears, deer, mountain tigers and other wild animals were disappearing from the reservation, and it was asserted that friends of the people who had charge of the park were allowed to hunt there in defiance of the law. There were probably 150 bodies of wild animals in the gulch when I was th 're. But, although they were skeletons entire and single bones, it must not be supposed these were the remains of all the game that had found death inthe ravine. They had accumulated only since the last rainstorm. Through this gulch a mountain torrent runs when the snows have melted from the mountains or after a bard rain. Then

all things, stones, bones 1 sad bodies, are tumbled together on their way to the month of the gnlcb, whence they are carried away in the creeks or are left to mark the coarse of the stream and bleach on the table lands. I had no* ticed near the Mammoth hot springs the bodies of mice and bugs, but had never attributed thefr presence to the. deadly nape that were so rapidly killing off the game of the park.”

Intelligent and cleanly housewives prefer pare goods, hence the growing mpuisrity and extended sale of Dr. Pr ce’s Cream Bakins Powder and Delia oas Flavoring Extracts. A. man named Potty was filled foil of holes during a quarrel near Cairo the Other night. The impression had gone abroad that pu.ty was opsd to atop up boles.