were seized, and the party set out at once for the Lake hotel. But such are the difficulties of snow shoe travel in this region, that it was long after dark before they reached their destination. The Yellowstone Park Association keeps a solitary watchman at each of its hotels during winter, and has a telephone line connecting each with Mammoth Hot Springs. By virtue of this lucky fact, Howell's capture, though made some sixty miles from the nearest telegraph station, and in a region where winter travel is impossible except on snow shoes, was made known to the Superintendent before 9:30 P. M. that day. By another stroke of good fortune a representative of _Forest and Stream_ was at that moment present at Mammoth Hot Springs. He had arrived but two days before and remained a guest of the Superintendent prior to a tour of the Park, which began two days later. The news of Howell's capture was at once put on the wire, and in less that twenty-four hours, _Forest and Stream_ was represented in Washington with a new and powerful argument for the passage of the Offenses Bill. The imminent danger of the speedy and entire extinction of the only remaining herd of buffalo in the country produced the desired effect in Congress, and on May 7, 1894, the bill became a law. It was throughout a most fortunate combination of circumstances that made this consummation possible. A Superintendent thoroughly devoted to the care of his important charge, and fearless in the execution of his duty; a scout who had the nerve to make an arrest full of peril to himself; the existence of a winter telephone line to the heart of that inaccessible region; the presence at Mammoth Hot Springs of a representative of that journal which holds first rank among the protectors of the Park; and uncommon good, luck in minor details, caused this important event to cast its influence into the national councils almost before the echo of the poacher's rifle shots had died away among the mountains. Howell's act was a misfortune--a grievous misfortune--to the game interests of the Park; but its immediate result in legislation will prove a benefit of far greater consequence. Howell was brought to Mammoth Hot Springs and was there imprisoned in the Fort Yellowstone guardhouse, and his case reported to Washington. As there was no law for his trial and punishment, the Secretary of the Interior in due time ordered his release. He was accordingly put out of the Park and forbidden to return without permission. But with his habitual disregard of authority, he came back during the following summer and was discovered by the Superintendent in a barber's chair at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. He was promptly arrested and tried under the new law for violating the orders of the Superintendent in returning. He was convicted and sentenced to one month's imprisonment and fifty dollars fine. He thus became the Park Haman--first to be hanged upon the gallows of his own building.