Produced by Chuck Greif, Tony Browne and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net





[Illustration: (Inscription) Mr. Theodore Roosevelt. Author of "Hunting
Trips of a Ranchman," With the compliments of The Author, W.T. Hornaday.]

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.

       *       *       *       *       *

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON.

BY

WILLIAM T. HORNADAY,

_Superintendent of the National Zoological Park._

       *       *       *       *       *

From the Report of the National Museum, 1886-'87, pages 369-548, and
plates I-XXII.

       *       *       *       *       *

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.

1889.

[Illustration: GROUP OF AMERICAN BISONS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.
Collected and mounted by W. T. Hornaday.]




CONTENTS.

PREFATORY NOTE

PART I.--THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE BISON

    I. Discovery of the species
   II. Geographical distribution
  III. Abundance
   IV. Character of the species
        1. The buffalo's rank amongst ruminants
        2. Change of form in captivity
        3. Mounted specimens in museums
        4. The calf
        5. The yearling
        6. The spike bull
        7. The adult bull
        8. The cow in the third year
        9. The adult cow
       10. The "Wood" or "Mountain Buffalo"
       11. The shedding of the winter pelage
    V. Habits of the buffalo
   VI. The food of the buffalo
  VII. Mental capacity and disposition of the buffalo
 VIII. Value to mankind
   IX. Economic value of the bison to Western
       cattle-growers
        1. The bison in captivity and domestication
        2. Need of an improvement in range cattle
        3. Character of the buffalo-domestic hybrid
        4. The bison as a beast of burden
        5. List of bison herds and individuals
           in captivity

PART II.--THE EXTERMINATION

    I. Causes of the extermination
   II. Methods of slaughter
        1. The "still hunt"
        2. The chase on horseback
        3. Impounding
        4. The surround
        5. Decoying and driving
        6. Hunting on snow-shoes
  III. Progress of the extermination
       A. The period of desultory destruction
       B. The period of systematic slaughter
           1. The Red River half-breeds
           2. The country of the Sioux
           3. Western railways, and their part
              in the extermination of the buffalo
           4. The division of the universal herd
           5. The destruction of the southern herd
           6. Statistics of the slaughter
           7. The destruction of the northern herd
   IV. Legislation to prevent useless slaughter
    V. Completeness of the wild buffalo's extirpation
   VI. Effects of the disappearance of the bison
  VII. Preservation of the species from absolute extinction

PART III.--THE SMITHSONIAN EXPEDITION FOR SPECIMENS

    I. The exploration for specimens
   II. The hunt
  III. The mounted group in the National Museum

INDEX




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Group of buffaloes in the National Museum
Head of bull buffalo
Slaughter of buffalo on Kansas Pacific Railroad
Buffalo cow, calf, and yearling
Spike bull
Bull buffalo
Bull buffalo, rear view
The development of the buffalo's horns
A dead bull
Buffalo skinners at work
Five minutes' work
Scene on the northern buffalo range
Half-breed calf
Half-breed buffalo (domestic) cow
Young half-breed bull
The still-hunt
The chase on horseback
Cree Indians impounding buffalo
The surround
Indians on snow-shoes hunting buffaloes
Where the millions have gone
Trophies of the hunt

MAPS.

Sketch map of the hunt for buffalo
Map illustrating the extermination of the American bison





PREFATORY NOTE.

It is hoped that the following historical account of the discovery,
partial utilization, and almost complete extermination of the great
American bison may serve to cause the public to fully realize the folly
of allowing all our most valuable and interesting American mammals to be
wantonly destroyed in the same manner. The wild buffalo is practically
gone forever, and in a few more years, when the whitened bones of the
last bleaching skeleton shall have been picked up and shipped East for
commercial uses, nothing will remain of him save his old, well-worn
trails along the water-courses, a few museum specimens, and regret for
his fate. If his untimely end fails even to point a moral that shall
benefit the surviving species of mammals _which are now being
slaughtered in like manner_, it will be sad indeed.

Although _Bison americanus_ is a true bison, according to scientific
classification, and not a buffalo, the fact that more than sixty
millions of people in this country unite in calling him a "buffalo," and
know him by no other name, renders it quite unnecessary for me to
apologize for following, in part, a harmless custom which has now become
so universal that all the naturalists in the world could not change it
if they would.

W. T. H.

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON,

By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY,

_Superintendent of the National Zoological Park._




PART I.--LIFE HISTORY OF THE BISON.




I. DISCOVERY OF THE SPECIES.


The discovery of the American bison, as first made by Europeans,
occurred in the menagerie of a heathen king.

In the year 1521, when Cortez reached Anahuac, the American bison was
seen for the first time by civilized Europeans, if we may be permitted
to thus characterize the horde of blood thirsty plunder seekers who
fought their way to the Aztec capital. With a degree of enterprise that
marked him as an enlightened monarch, Montezuma maintained, for the
instruction of his people, a well-appointed menagerie, of which the
historian De Solis wrote as follows (1724):

"In the second Square of the same House were the Wild Beasts, which were
either presents to Montezuma, or taken by his Hunters, in strong Cages
of Timber, rang'd in good Order, and under Cover: Lions, Tygers, Bears,
and all others of the savage Kind which New-Spain produced; among which
the greatest Rarity was the Mexican Bull; a wonderful composition of
divers Animals. It has crooked Shoulders, with a Bunch on its Back like
a Camel; its Flanks dry, its Tail large, and its Neck cover'd with Hair
like a Lion. It is cloven footed, its Head armed like that of a Bull,
which it resembles in Fierceness, with no less strength and Agility."

Thus was the first seen buffalo described. The nearest locality from
whence it could have come was the State of Coahuila, in northern Mexico,
between 400 and 500 miles away, and at that time vehicles were unknown
to the Aztecs. But for the destruction of the whole mass of the written
literature of the Aztecs by the priests of the Spanish Conquest, we
might now be reveling in historical accounts of the bison which would
make the oldest of our present records seem of comparatively recent
date.

Nine years after the event referred to above, or in 1530, another
Spanish explorer, Alvar Nuñez Cabeza, afterwards called Cabeza de
Vaca--or, in other words "Cattle Cabeza," the prototype of our own
distinguished "Buffalo Bill"--was wrecked on the Gulf coast, west of
the delta of the Mississippi, from whence he wandered westward through
what is now the State of Texas. In southeastern Texas he discovered the
American bison on his native heath. So far as can be ascertained, this
was the earliest discovery of the bison in a wild state, and the
description of the species as recorded by the explorer is of historical
interest. It is brief and superficial. The unfortunate explorer took
very little interest in animated nature, except as it contributed to the
sum of his daily food, which was then the all-important subject of his
thoughts. He almost starved. This is all he has to say:[1]

[Note 1: Davis' Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. 1869. P. 67.]

"Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times, and eaten of
their meat. I think they are about the size of those in Spain. They have
small horns like those of Morocco, and the hair long and flocky, like
that of the merino. Some are light brown (_pardillas_) and others black.
To my judgment the flesh is finer and sweeter than that of this country
[Spain]. The Indians make blankets of those that are not full grown, and
of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come as far as the
sea-coast of Florida [now Texas], and in a direction from the north, and
range over a district of more than 400 leagues. In the whole extent of
plain over which they roam, the people who live bordering upon it
descend and kill them for food, and thus a great many skins are
scattered throughout the country."

Coronado was the next explorer who penetrated the country of the
buffalo, which he accomplished from the west, by way of Arizona and New
Mexico. He crossed the southern part of the "Pan-handle" of Texas, to
the edge of what is now the Indian Territory, and returned through the
same region. It was in the year 1542 that he reached the buffalo
country, and traversed the plains that were "full of crooke-backed oxen,
as the mountaine Serena in Spaine is of sheepe." This is the description
of the animal as recorded by one of his followers, Castañeda, and
translated by W. W. Davis:[2]

[Note 2: The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. Davis. 1869. Pp. 206-7.]

"The first time we encountered the buffalo, all the horses took to
flight on seeing them, for they are horrible to the sight.

"They have a broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other, and
projecting in such a manner sideways that they can see a pursuer. Their
beard is like that of goats, and so long that it drags the ground when
they lower the head. They have, on the anterior portion of the body, a
frizzled hair like sheep's wool; it is very fine upon the croup, and
sleek like a lion's mane. Their horns are very short and thick, and can
scarcely be seen through the hair. They always change their hair in May,
and at this season they really resemble lions. To make it drop more
quickly, for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll among
the brush-wood which they find in the ravines.

"Their tail is very short, and terminates in a great tuft. When they run
they carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are
tawny, and resemble our calves; but as age increases they change color
and form.

"Another thing which struck us was that all the old buffaloes that we
killed had the left ear cloven, while it was entire in the young; we
could never discover the reason of this.

"Their wool is so fine that handsome clothes would certainly be made of
it, but it can not be dyed for it is tawny red. We were much surprised
at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow,
and other herds of cows without bulls."

Neither De Soto, Ponce de Leon, Vasquez de Ayllon, nor Pamphilo de
Narvaez ever saw a buffalo, for the reason that all their explorations
were made south of what was then the habitat of that animal. At the time
De Soto made his great exploration from Florida northwestward to the
Mississippi and into Arkansas (1539-'41) he did indeed pass through
country in northern Mississippi and Louisiana that was afterward
inhabited by the buffalo, but at that time not one was to be found
there. Some of his soldiers, however, who were sent into the northern
part of Arkansas, reported having seen buffalo skins in the possession
of the Indians, and were told that live buffaloes were to be found 5 or
6 leagues north of their farthest point.

The earliest discovery of the bison in Eastern North America, or indeed
anywhere north of Coronado's route, was made somewhere near Washington,
District of Columbia, in 1612, by an English navigator named Samuel
Argoll,[3] and narrated as follows:

"As soon as I had unladen this corne, I set my men to the felling of
Timber, for the building of a Frigat, which I had left half finished at
Point Comfort, the 19. of March: and returned myself with the ship into
Pembrook [Potomac] River, and so discovered to the head of it, which is
about 65 leagues into the Land, and navigable for any ship. And then
marching into the Countrie, I found great store of Cattle as big as
Kine, of which the Indians that were my guides killed a couple, which we
found to be very good and wholesome meate, and are very easie to be
killed, in regard they are heavy, slow, and not so wild as other beasts
of the wildernesse."

[Note 3: Purchas: His Pilgrimes. (1625.) Vol. IV, p. 1765. "A letter of
Sir Samuel Argoll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there.
Written to Master Nicholas Hawes, June, 1613."]

It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer affords no clew
to the precise locality of this interesting discovery, but since it is
doubtful that the mariner journeyed very far on foot from the head of
navigation of the Potomac, it seems highly probable that the first
American bison seen by Europeans, other than the Spaniards, was found
within 15 miles, or even less, of the capital of the United States, and
possibly within the District of Columbia itself.

The first meeting of the white man with the buffalo on the northern
boundary of that animal's habitat occurred in 1679, when Father
Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, and finally
penetrated the great wilderness as far as western Illinois.

The next meeting with the buffalo on the Atlantic slope was in October,
1729, by a party of surveyors under Col. William Byrd, who were engaged
in surveying the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia.

As the party journeyed up from the coast, marking the line which now
constitutes the interstate boundary, three buffaloes were seen on
Sugar-Tree Creek, but none of them were killed.

On the return journey, in November, a bull buffalo was killed on
Sugar-Tree Creek, which is in Halifax County, Virginia, within 5 miles
of Big Buffalo Creek; longitude 78° 40' W., and 155 miles from the
coast.[4] "It was found all alone, tho' Buffaloes Seldom are." The meat
is spoken of as "a Rarity," not met at all on the expedition up. The
animal was found in thick woods, which were thus feelingly described:
"The woods were thick great Part of this Day's Journey, so that we were
forced to scuffle hard to advance 7 miles, being equal in fatigue to
double that distance of Clear and Open Ground." One of the creeks which
the party crossed was christened Buffalo Creek, and "so named from the
frequent tokens we discovered of that American Behemoth."

[Note 4: Westover Manuscript. Col. William Byrd. Vol. I, p. 178.]

In October, 1733, on another surveying expedition, Colonel Byrd's party
had the good fortune to kill another buffalo near Sugar-Tree Creek,
which incident is thus described:[5]

[Note 5: Vol. II, pp. 24, 25.]

"We pursued our journey thro' uneven and perplext woods, and in the
thickest of them had the Fortune to knock down a Young Buffalo 2 years
old. Providence threw this vast animal in our way very Seasonably, just
as our provisions began to fail us. And it was the more welcome, too,
because it was change of dyet, which of all Varietys, next to that of
Bed-fellows, is the most agreeable. We had lived upon Venison and Bear
till our stomachs loath'd them almost as much as the Hebrews of old did
their Quails. Our Butchers were so unhandy at their Business that we
grew very lank before we cou'd get our Dinner. But when it came, we
found it equal in goodness to the best Beef. They made it the longer
because they kept Sucking the Water out of the Guts in imitation of the
Catauba Indians, upon the belief that it is a great Cordial, and will
even make them drunk, or at least very Gay."

A little later a solitary bull buffalo was found, _but spared_,[6] the
earliest instance of the kind on record, and which had few successors to
keep it company.

[Note 6: _Ib._, p. 28.]




II. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.


The range of the American bison extended over about one-third of the
entire continent of North America. Starting almost at tide-water on the
Atlantic coast, it extended westward through a vast tract of dense
forest, across the Alleghany Mountain system to the prairies along the
Mississippi, and southward to the Delta of that great stream. Although
the great plains country of the West was the natural home of the
species, where it flourished most abundantly, it also wandered south
across Texas to the burning plains of northeastern Mexico, westward
across the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho, and
northward across a vast treeless waste to the bleak and inhospitable
shores of the Great Slave Lake itself. It is more than probable that had
the bison remained unmolested by man and uninfluenced by him, he would
eventually have crossed the Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Range and taken
up his abode in the fertile valleys of the Pacific slope.

Had the bison remained for a few more centuries in undisturbed
possession of his range, and with liberty to roam at will over the North
American continent, it is almost certain that several distinctly
recognizable varieties would have been produced. The buffalo of the hot
regions in the extreme south would have become a short-haired animal
like the gaur of India and the African buffalo. The individuals
inhabiting the extreme north, in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, for
example, would have developed still longer hair, and taken on more of
the dense hairyness of the musk ox. In the "wood" or "mountain buffalo"
we already have a distinct foreshadowing of the changes which would have
taken place in the individuals which made their permanent residence upon
rugged mountains.

It would be an easy matter to fill a volume with facts relating to the
geographical distribution of _Bison americanus_ and the dates of its
occurrence and disappearance in the multitude of different localities
embraced within the immense area it once inhabited. The capricious
shiftings of certain sections of the great herds, whereby large areas
which for many years had been utterly unvisited by buffaloes suddenly
became overrun by them, could be followed up indefinitely, but to little
purpose. In order to avoid wearying the reader with a mass of dates and
references, the map accompanying this paper has been prepared to show at
a glance the approximate dates at which the bison finally disappeared
from the various sections of its habitat. In some cases the date given
is coincident with the death of the last buffalo known to have been
killed in a given State or Territory; in others, where records are
meager, the date given is the nearest approximation, based on existing
records. In the preparation of this map I have drawn liberally from Mr.
J. A. Allen's admirable monograph of "The American Bison," in which the
author has brought together, with great labor and invariable accuracy, a
vast amount of historical data bearing upon this subject. In this
connection I take great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to
Professor Allen's work.

While it is inexpedient to include here all the facts that might be
recorded with reference to the discovery, existence, and ultimate
extinction of the bison in the various portions of its former habitat,
it is yet worth while to sketch briefly the extreme limits of its range.
In doing this, our starting point will be the Atlantic slope east of the
Alleghanies, and the reader will do well to refer to the large map.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--There is no indisputable evidence that the bison
ever inhabited this precise locality, but it is probable that it did. In
1612 Captain Argoll sailed up the "Pembrook River" to the head of
navigation (Mr. Allen believes this was the James River, and not the
Potomac) and marched inland a few miles, where he discovered buffaloes,
some of which were killed by his Indian guides. If this river was the
Potomac, and most authorities believe that it was, the buffaloes seen by
Captain Argoll might easily have been in what is now the District of
Columbia.

Admitting the existence of a reasonable doubt as to the identity of the
Pembrook River of Captain Argoll, there is yet another bit of history
which fairly establishes the fact that in the early part of the
seventeenth century buffaloes inhabited the banks of the Potomac between
this city and the lower falls. In 1624 an English fur trader named Henry
Fleet came hither to trade with the Anacostian Indians, who then
inhabited the present site of the city of Washington, and with the
tribes of the Upper Potomac. In his journal (discovered a few years
since in the Lambeth Library, London) Fleet gave a quaint description of
the city's site as it then appeared. The following is from the
explorer's journal:

"Monday, the 25th June, we set sail for the town of Tohoga, where we
came to an anchor 2 leagues short of the falls. * * * This place,
without question, is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this
country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperate in summer
and not violent in winter. It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The
Indians in one night commonly will catch thirty sturgeons in a place
where the river is not above 12 fathoms broad, and as for deer,
buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them. * * * The 27th
of June I manned my shallop and went up with the flood, the tide rising
about 4 feet at this place. We had not rowed above 3 miles, but we might
hear the falls to roar about 6 miles distant."[7]

[Note 7: Charles Burr Todd's "Story of Washington," p. 18. New York,
1889.]

MARYLAND.--There is no evidence that the bison ever inhabited Maryland,
except what has already been adduced with reference to the District of
Columbia. If either of the references quoted may be taken as conclusive
proof, and I see no reason for disputing either, then the fact that the
bison once ranged northward from Virginia into Maryland is fairly
established. There is reason to expect that fossil remains of _Bison
americanus_ will yet be found both in Maryland and the District of
Columbia, and I venture to predict that this will yet occur.

VIRGINIA.--Of the numerous references to the occurrence of the bison in
Virginia, it is sufficient to allude to Col. William Byrd's meetings
with buffaloes in 1620, while surveying the southern boundary of the
State, about 155 miles from the coast, as already quoted; the references
to the discovery of buffaloes on the eastern side of the Virginia
mountains, quoted by Mr. Allen from Salmon's "Present State of
Virginia," page 14 (London, 1737), and the capture _and domestication_
of buffaloes in 1701 by the Huguenot settlers at Manikintown, which was
situated on the James River, about 14 miles above Richmond. Apparently,
buffaloes were more numerous in Virginia than in any other of the
Atlantic States.

NORTH CAROLINA.--Colonel Byrd's discoveries along the interstate
boundary between Virginia and North Carolina fixes the presence of the
bison in the northern part of the latter State at the date of the
survey. The following letter to Prof. G. Brown Goode, dated Birdsnest
post-office, Va., August 6, 1888, from Mr. C. R. Moore, furnishes
reliable evidence of the presence of the buffalo at another point in
North Carolina: "In the winter of 1857 I was staying for the night at
the house of an old gentleman named Houston. I should judge he was
seventy then. He lived near Buffalo Ford, on the Catawba River, about 4
miles from Statesville, N. C. I asked him how the ford got its name. He
told me that his grandfather told him that when he was a boy the buffalo
crossed there, and that when the rocks in the river were bare they would
eat the moss that grew upon them." The point indicated is in longitude
81° west and the date not far from 1750.

SOUTH CAROLINA.--Professor Allen cites numerous authorities, whose
observations furnish abundant evidence of the existence of the buffalo
in South Carolina during the first half of the eighteenth century. From
these it is quite evident that in the northwestern half of the State
buffaloes were once fairly numerous. Keating declares, on the authority
of Colhoun, "and we know that some of those who first settled the
Abbeville district in South Carolina, in 1756, found the buffalo
there."[8] This appears to be the only definite locality in which the
presence of the species was recorded.

[Note 8: Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, 1823,
II, p. 26.]

GEORGIA.--The extreme southeastern limit of the buffalo in the United
States was found on the coast of Georgia, near the mouth of the Altamaha
River, opposite St. Simon's Island. Mr. Francis Moore, in his "Voyage to
Georgia," made in 1736 and reported upon in 1744,[9] makes the following
observation:

[Note 9: Coll. Georgia Hist. Soc., I, p. 117.]

"The island [St. Simon's] abounds with deer and rabbits. There are no
buffalo in it, though there are large herds upon the main." Elsewhere in
the same document (p. 122) reference is made to buffalo-hunting by
Indians on the main-land near Darien.

In James E. Oglethorpe's enumeration (A. D. 1733) of the wild beasts of
Georgia and South Carolina he mentions "deer, elks, bears, wolves, and
buffaloes."[10]

[Note 10: Ibid., I, p. 51.]

Up to the time of Moore's voyage to Georgia the interior was almost
wholly unexplored, and it is almost certain that had not the "large
herds of buffalo on the main-land" existed within a distance of 20 or 30
miles or less from the coast, the colonists would have had no knowledge
of them; nor would the Indians have taken to the war-path against the
whites at Darien "under pretense of hunting buffalo."

ALABAMA.--Having established the existence of the bison in northwestern
Georgia almost as far down as the center of the State, and in
Mississippi down to the neighborhood of the coast, it was naturally
expected that a search of historical records would reveal evidence that
the bison once inhabited the northern half of Alabama. A most careful
search through all the records bearing upon the early history and
exploration of Alabama, to be found in the Library of Congress, failed
to discover the slightest reference to the existence of the species in
that State, or even to the use of buffalo skins by any of the Alabama
Indians. While it is possible that such a hiatus really existed, in this
instance its existence would be wholly unaccountable. I believe that the
buffalo once inhabited the northern half of Alabama, even though history
fails to record it.

LOUISIANA AND MISSISSIPPI.--At the beginning of the eighteenth century,
buffaloes were plentiful in southern Mississippi and Louisiana, not only
down to the coast itself, from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi, but even in the
very Delta of the Mississippi, as the following record shows. In a
"Memoir addressed to Count de Pontchartrain," December 10, 1697, the
author, M. de Remonville, describes the country around the mouth of the
Mississippi, now the State of Louisiana, and further says:[11]

"A great abundance of wild cattle are also found there, which might be
domesticated by rearing up the young calves." Whether these animals were
buffaloes might be considered an open question but for the following
additional information, which affords positive evidence: "The trade in
furs and peltry would be immensely valuable and exceedingly profitable.
We could also draw from thence a great quantity of buffalo hides every
year, as the plains are filled with the animals."

In the same volume, page 47, in a document entitled "Annals of Louisiana
from 1698 to 1722, by M. Penicaut" (1698), the author records the
presence of the buffalo on the Gulf coast on the banks of the Bay St.
Louis, as follows: "The next day we left Pea Island, and passed through
the Little Rigolets, which led into the sea about three leagues from the
Bay of St. Louis. We encamped at the entrance of the bay, near a
fountain of water that flows from the hills, and which was called at
this time Belle Fountain. We hunted during several days upon the coast
of this bay, and filled our boats with the meat of the deer, buffaloes,
and other wild game which we had killed, and carried it to the fort
(Biloxi)."

[Note 11: Hist. Coll. of Louisiana and Florida, B. F. French, 1869,
first series, p. 2.]

The occurrence of the buffalo at Natchez is recorded,[12] and also (p.
115) at the mouth of Red River, as follows: "We ascended the Mississippi
to Pass Manchac, where we killed fifteen buffaloes. The next day we
landed again, and killed eight more buffaloes and as many deer."

[Note 12: Ibid., pp. 88-91.]

The presence of the buffalo in the Delta of the Mississippi was observed
and recorded by D'Iberville in 1699.[13]

[Note 13: Hist. Coll. of Louisiana and Florida, French, second series,
p. 58.]

According to Claiborne,[14] the Choctaws have an interesting tradition
in regard to the disappearance of the buffalo from Mississippi. It
relates that during the early part of the eighteenth century a great
drought occurred, which was particularly severe in the prairie region.
For three years not a drop of rain fell. The Nowubee and Tombigbee
Rivers dried up and the forests perished. The elk and buffalo, which up
to that time had been numerous, all migrated to the country beyond the
Mississippi, and never returned.

[Note 14: Mississippi as a Province, Territory, and State, p. 484.]

TEXAS.--It will be remembered that it was in southeastern Texas, in all
probability within 50 miles of the present city of Houston, that the
earliest discovery of the American bison on its native heath was made in
1530 by Cabeza de Vaca, a half-starved, half-naked, and wholly wretched
Spaniard, almost the only surviving member of the celebrated expedition
which burned its ships behind it. In speaking of the buffalo in Texas at
the earliest periods of which we have any historical record, Professor
Allen says: "They were also found in immense herds on the coast of
Texas, at the Bay of St. Bernard (Matagorda Bay), and on the lower part
of the Colorado (Rio Grande, according to some authorities), by La
Salle, in 1685, and thence northwards across the Colorado, Brazos, and
Trinity Rivers." Joutel says that when in latitude 28° 51' "the sight
of abundance of goats and bullocks, differing in shape from ours, and
running along the coast, heightened our earnestness to be ashore." They
afterwards landed in St. Louis Bay (now called Matagorda Bay), where
they found buffaloes in such numbers on the Colorado River that they
called it La Rivière aux Boeufs.[15] According to Professor Allen, the
buffalo did not inhabit the coast of Texas east of the mouth of the
Brazos River.

[Note 15: The American Bisons, Living and Extinct, p. 132.]

It is a curious coincidence that the State of Texas, wherein the
earliest discoveries and observations upon the bison were made, should
also now furnish a temporary shelter for one of the last remnants of the
great herd.

MEXICO.--In regard to the existence of the bison south of the Rio
Grande, in old Mexico, there appears to be but one authority on record,
Dr. Berlandier, who at the time of his death left in MS. a work on the
mammals of Mexico. At one time this MS. was in the Smithsonian
Institution, but it is there no longer, nor is its fate even
ascertainable. It is probable that it was burned in the fire that
destroyed a portion of the Institution in 1865. Fortunately Professor
Allen obtained and published in his monograph (in French) a copy of that
portion of Dr. Berlandier's work relating to the presence of the bison
in Mexico,[16] of which the following is a translation:

[Note 16: The American Bisons, pp. 129-130.]

"In Mexico, when the Spaniards, ever greedy for riches, pushed their
explorations to the north and northeast, it was not long before they met
with the buffalo. In 1602 the Franciscan monks who discovered Nuevo Leon
encountered in the neighborhood of Monterey numerous herds of these
quadrupeds. They were also distributed in Nouvelle Biscaye (States of
Chihuahua and Durango), and they sometimes advanced to the extreme south
of that country. In the eighteenth century they concentrated more and
more toward the north, but still remained very abundant in the
neighborhood of the province of Bexar. At the commencement of the
nineteenth century we see them recede gradually in the interior of the
country to such an extent that they became day by day scarcer and
scarcer about the settlements. Now, it is not in their periodical
migrations that we meet them near Bexar. Every year in the spring, in
April or May, they advance toward the north, to return again to the
southern regions in September and October. The exact limits of these
annual migrations are unknown; it is, however, probable that in the
north they never go beyond the banks of the Rio Bravo, at least in the
States of Cohahuila and Texas. Toward the north, not being checked by
the currents of the Missouri, they progress even as far as Michigan, and
they are found in summer in the Territories and interior States of the
United States of North America. The route which these animals follow in
their migrations occupies a width of several miles, and becomes so
marked that, besides the verdure destroyed, one would believe that the
fields had been covered with manure.

"These migrations are not general, for certain bands do not seem to
follow the general mass of their kin, but remain stationary throughout
the whole year on the prairies covered with a rich vegetation on the
banks of the Rio de Guadelupe and the Rio Colorado of Texas, not far
from the shores of the Gulf, to the east of the colony of San Felipe,
precisely at the same spot where La Salle and his traveling companions
saw them two hundred years before. The Rev. Father Damian Mansanet saw
them also as in our days on the shores of Texas, in regions which have
since been covered with the habitations, hamlets, and villages of the
new colonists, and from whence they have disappeared since 1828."

[Illustration: HEAD OF BUFFALO BULL From specimen in the National Museum
Group. Reproduced from the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, by permission of the
publishers.]

"From the observations made on this subject we may conclude that the
buffalo inhabited the temperate zone of the New World, and that they
inhabited it at all times. In the north they never advanced beyond the
48th or 58th degree of latitude, and in the south, although they may
have reached as low as 25°, they scarcely passed beyond the 27th or
28th degree (north latitude), at least in the inhabited and known
portions of the country."

NEW MEXICO.--In 1542 Coronado, while on his celebrated march, met with
vast herds of buffalo on the Upper Pecos River, since which the presence
of the species in the valley of the Pecos has been well known. In
describing the journey of Espejo down the Pecos River in the year 1584,
Davis says (Spanish Conquest of New Mexico, p. 260): "They passed down a
river they called _Rio de las Vacas_, or the River of Oxen [the river
Pecos, and the same Cow River that Vaca describes, says Professor
Allen], and was so named because of the great number of buffaloes that
fed upon its banks. They traveled down this river the distance of 120
leagues, all the way passing through great herds of buffaloes."

Professor Allen locates the western boundary of the buffalo in New
Mexico even as far west as the western side of Rio Grande del Norte.

UTAH.--It is well known that buffaloes, though in very small numbers,
once inhabited northeastern Utah, and that a few were killed by the
Mormon settlers prior to 1840 in the vicinity of Great Salt Lake. In the
museum at Salt Lake City I was shown a very ancient mounted head of a
buffalo bull which was said to have been killed in the Salt Lake Valley.
It is doubtful that such was really fact. There is no evidence that the
bison ever inhabited the southwestern half of Utah, and, considering the
general sterility of the Territory as a whole previous to its
development by irrigation, it is surprising that any buffalo in his
senses would ever set foot in it at all.

IDAHO.--The former range of the bison probably embraced the whole of
Idaho. Fremont states that in the spring of 1824 "the buffalo were
spread in immense numbers over the Green River and Bear River Valleys,
and through all the country lying between the Colorado, or Green River
of the Gulf of California, and Lewis' Fork of the Columbia River, the
meridian of Fort Hall then forming the western limit of their range."
[In J. K. Townsend's "Narrative of a Journey across the Rocky
Mountains," in 1834, he records the occurrence of herds near the Mellade
and Boise and Salmon Rivers, ten days' journey--200 miles--west of Fort
Hall.] The buffalo then remained for many years in that country, and
frequently moved down the valley of the Columbia, on both sides of the
river, as far as the Fishing Falls. Below this point they never
descended in any numbers. About 1834 or 1835 they began to diminish very
rapidly, and continued to decrease until 1838 or 1840, when, with the
country we have just described, they entirely abandoned all the waters
of the Pacific north of Lewis's Fork of the Columbia [now called Snake]
River. At that time the Flathead Indians were in the habit of finding
their buffalo on the heads of Salmon River and other streams of the
Columbia.

OREGON.--The only evidence on record of the occurrence of the bison in
Oregon is the following, from Professor Allen's memoir (p. 119):
"Respecting its former occurrence in eastern Oregon, Prof. O. C. Marsh,
under date of New Haven, February 7, 1875, writes me as follows: 'The
most western point at which I have myself observed remains of the
buffalo was in 187 on Willow Creek, eastern Oregon, among the foot hills
of the eastern side of the Blue Mountains. This is about latitude 44°.
The bones were perfectly characteristic, although nearly decomposed.'"

The remains must have been those of a solitary and very enterprising
straggler.

THE NORTHWEST TERRITORIES (British).--At two or three points only did
the buffaloes of the British Possessions cross the Rocky Mountain
barrier toward British Columbia. One was the pass through which the
Canadian Pacific Railway now runs, 200 miles north of the international
boundary. According to Dr. Richardson, the number of buffaloes which
crossed the mountains at that point were sufficiently noticeable to
constitute a feature of the fauna on the western side of the range. It
is said that buffaloes also crossed by way of the Kootenai Pass, which
is only a few miles north of the boundary line, but the number which did
so must have been very small.

As might be expected from the character of the country, the favorite
range of the bison in British America was the northern extension of the
great pasture region lying between the Missouri River and Great Slave
Lake. The most northerly occurrence of the bison is recorded as an
observation of Franklin in 1820 at Slave Point, on the north side of
Great Slave Lake. "A few frequent Slave Point, on the north side of the
lake, but this is the most northern situation in which they were
observed by Captain Franklin's party."[17]

[Note 17: Sabine, Zoological Appendix to "Franklin's Journey," p. 668.]

Dr. Richardson defined the eastern boundary of the bison's range in
British America as follows: "They do not frequent any of the districts
formed of primitive rocks, and the limits of their range to the
eastward, within the Hudson's Bay Company's territories, may be
correctly marked on the map by a line commencing in longitude 97°, on
the Red River, which flows into the south end of Lake Winnipeg, crossing
the Saskatchewan to the westward of the Basquian Hill, and running
thence by the Athapescow to the east end of Great Slave Lake." Their
migrations westward were formerly limited to the Rocky Mountain range,
and they are still unknown in New Caledonia and on the shores of the
Pacific to the north of the Columbia River; but of late years they have
found out a passage across the mountains near the sources of the
Saskatchewan, and their numbers to the westward are annually
increasing.[18]

[Note 18: Fauna Boreali-Americana, vol. 1, p, 279-280.]

_Great Slave Lake._--That the buffalo inhabited the southern shore of
this lake as late as 1871 is well established by the following letter
from Mr. E. W. Nelson to Mr. J. A. Allen, under date of July 11,
1877:[19] "I have met here [St. Michaels, Alaska] two gentlemen who
crossed the mountains from British Columbia and came to Fort Yukon
through British America, from whom I have derived some information about
the buffalo (_Bison americanus_) which will be of interest to you. These
gentlemen descended the Peace River, and on about the one hundred and
eighteenth degree of longitude made a portage to Hay River, directly
north. On this portage they saw thousands of buffalo skulls, and old
trails, in some instances 2 or 3 feet deep, leading east and west. They
wintered on Hay River near its entrance into Great Slave Lake, and here
found the buffalo still common, occupying a restricted territory along
the southern border of the lake. This was in 1871. They made inquiry
concerning the large number of skulls seen by them on the portage, and
learned that about fifty years before, snow fell to the estimated depth
of 14 feet, and so enveloped the animals that they perished by
thousands. It is asserted that these buffaloes are larger than those of
the plains."

[Note 19: American Naturalist, xi, p. 624.]

MINNESOTA AND WISCONSIN.--A line drawn from Winnipeg to Chicago, curving
slightly to the eastward in the middle portion, will very nearly define
the eastern boundary of the buffalo's range in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

ILLINOIS AND INDIANA.--The whole of these two States were formerly
inhabited by the buffalo, the fertile prairies of Illinois being
particularly suited to their needs. It is doubtful whether the range of
the species extended north of the northern boundary of Indiana, but
since southern Michigan was as well adapted to their support as Ohio or
Indiana, their absence from that State must have been due more to
accident than design.

OHIO.--The southern shore of Lake Erie forms part of the northern
boundary of the bison's range in the eastern United States. La Hontan
explored Lake Erie in 1687 and thus describes its southern shore: "I can
not express what quantities of Deer and Turkeys are to be found in these
Woods, and in the vast Meads that lye upon the South side of the Lake.
At the bottom of the Lake we find beeves upon the Banks of two pleasant
Rivers that disembogue into it, without Cataracts or Rapid
Currents."[20] It thus appears that the southern shore of Lake Erie
forms part of the northern boundary of the buffalo's range in the
eastern United States.

[Note 20: J. A. Allen's _American Bisons_, p. 107.]

NEW YORK.--In regard to the presence of the bison in any portion of the
State of New York, Professor Allen considers the evidence as fairly
conclusive that it once existed in western New York, not only in the
vicinity of the eastern end of Lake Erie, where now stands the city of
Buffalo, at the mouth of a large creek of the same name, but also on the
shore of Lake Ontario, probably in Orleans County. In his monograph of
"The American Bisons," page 107, he gives the following testimony and
conclusions on this point:

"The occurrence of a stream in western New York, called Buffalo Creek,
which empties into the eastern end of Lake Erie, is commonly viewed as
traditional evidence of its occurrence at this point, but positive
testimony to this effect has thus far escaped me.

"This locality, if it actually came so far eastward, must have formed
the eastern limit of its range along the lakes. I have found only highly
questionable allusions to the occurrence of buffaloes along the southern
shore of Lake Ontario. Keating, on the authority of Colhoun, however,
has cited a passage from Morton's "New English Canaan" as proof of their
former existence in the neighborhood of this lake. Morton's statement is
based on Indian reports, and the context gives sufficient evidence of
the general vagueness of his knowledge of the region of which he was
speaking. The passage, printed in 1637 is as follows: They [the Indians]
have also made descriptions of great heards of well growne beasts that
live about the parts of this lake [Erocoise] such as the Christian world
(untill this discovery) hath not bin made acquainted with. These Beasts
are of the bignesse of a Cowe, their flesh being very good foode, their
hides good lether, their fleeces very usefull, being a kinde of wolle as
fine almost as the wolle of the Beaver, and the Salvages doe make
garments thereof. It is tenne yeares since first the relation of these
things came to the eares of the English.' The 'beast' to which allusion
is here made [says Professor Allen] is unquestionably the buffalo, but
the locality of Lake 'Erocoise' is not so easily settled. Colhoun
regards it, and probably correctly, as identical with Lake Ontario. * *
* The extreme northeastern limit of the former range of the buffalo
seems to have been, as above stated, in western New York, near the
eastern end of Lake Erie. That it probably ranged thus far there is fair
evidence."

PENNSYLVANIA.--From the eastern end of Lake Erie the boundary of the
bison's habitat extends south into western Pennsylvania, to a marsh
called Buffalo Swamp on a map published by Peter Kalm in 1771. Professor
Allen says it "is indicated as situated between the Alleghany River and
the West Branch of the Susquehanna, near the heads of the Licking and
Toby's Creeks (apparently the streams now called Oil Creek and Clarion
Creek)." In this region there were at one time thousands of buffaloes.
While there is not at hand any positive evidence that the buffalo ever
inhabited the southwestern portion of Pennsylvania, its presence in the
locality mentioned above, and in West Virginia generally, on the south,
furnishes sufficient reason for extending the boundary so as to include
the southwestern portion of the State and connect with our starting
point, the District of Columbia.




III. ABUNDANCE.


Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the earth, probably no other
species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the
American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the
number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffaloes
living at any given time during the history of the species previous to
1870. Even in South Central Africa, which has always been exceedingly
prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all its quadrupeds
taken together on an equal area would never have more than equaled the
total number of buffalo in this country forty years ago.

To an African hunter, such a statement may seem incredible, but it
appears to be fully warranted by the literature of both branches of the
subject.

Not only did the buffalo formerly range eastward far into the forest
regions of western New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carolinas, and
Georgia, but in some places it was so abundant as to cause remark. In
Mr. J. A. Allen's valuable monograph[21] appear a great number of
interesting historical references on this subject, as indeed to every
other relating to the buffalo, a few of which I will take the liberty of
quoting.

[Note 21: All who are especially interested in the life history of the
buffalo, both scientific and economical, will do well to consult Mr.
Allen's monograph, "The American Bisons, Living and Extinct," if it be
accessible. Unfortunately it is a difficult matter for the general
reader to obtain it. A reprint of the work as originally published, but
omitting the map, plates, and such of the subject-matter as relates to
the extinct species, appears in Hayden's "Report of the Geological
Survey of the Territories," for 1875 (pp. 443-587), but the volume has
for several years been out of print.

The memoir as originally published has the following titles:

_Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Kentucky.| N. S. Shaler, Director.|
Vol. I. Part II.|--| The American Bisons,| living and extinct.| By J. A.
Allen.| With twelve plates and map.|--| University press, Cambridge:|
Welch, Bigelow & Co.| 1876._

_Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Zoology,| at Harvard College,
Cambridge, Mass.| Vol. IV. No. 10.|--| The American Bisons,| living and
extinct.| By J. A. Allen.| Published by permission of N. S. Shaler,
Director of the Kentucky| Geological Survey.| With twelve plates and a
map.| University press, Cambridge:| Welch, Bigelow & Co.| 1876.|_

_4to., pp. i-ix, 1-246, 1 col'd map, 12 pl., 13 ll. explanatory, 2
wood-cuts in text._

These two publications were simultaneous, and only differed in the
titles. Unfortunately both are of greater rarity than the reprint
referred to above.]

In the vicinity of the spot where the town of Clarion now stands, in
northwestern Pennsylvania, Mr. Thomas Ashe relates that one of the first
settlers built his log cabin near a salt spring which was visited by
buffaloes in such numbers that "he supposed there could not have been
less than two thousand in the neighborhood of the spring." During the
first years of his residence there, the buffaloes came in droves of
about three hundred each.

Of the Blue Licks in Kentucky, Mr. John Filson thus wrote, in 1784: "The
amazing herds of buffaloes which resort thither, by their size and
number, fill the traveller with amazement and terror, especially when
he beholds the prodigious roads they have made from all quarters, as if
leading to some populous city; the vast space of land around these
springs desolated as if by a ravaging enemy, and hills reduced to
plains; for the land near these springs is chiefly hilly. * * * I have
heard a hunter assert he saw above one thousand buffaloes at the Blue
Licks at once; so numerous were they before the first settlers had
wantonly sported away their lives." Col. Daniel Boone declared of the
Red River region in Kentucky, "The buffaloes were more frequent than I
have seen cattle in the settlements, browzing on the leaves of the cane,
or cropping the herbage of those extensive plains, fearless because
ignorant of the violence of man. Sometimes we saw hundreds in a drove,
and the numbers about the salt springs were amazing."

According to Ramsey, where Nashville now stands, in 1770 there were
"immense numbers of buffalo and other wild game. The country was crowded
with them. Their bellowings sounded from the hills and forest." Daniel
Boone found vast herds of buffalo grazing in the valleys of East
Tennessee, between the spurs of the Cumberland mountains.

Marquette declared that the prairies along the Illinois River were
"covered with buffaloes." Father Hennepin, in writing of northern
Illinois, between Chicago and the Illinois River, asserted that "there
must be an innumerable quantity of wild bulls in that country, since the
earth is covered with their horns. * * * They follow one another, so
that you may see a drove of them for above a league together. * * *
Their ways are as beaten as our great roads, and no herb grows therein."

Judged by ordinary standards of comparison, the early pioneers of the
last century thought buffalo were abundant in the localities mentioned
above. But the herds which lived east of the Mississippi were
comparatively only mere stragglers from the innumerable mass which
covered the great western pasture region from the Mississippi to the
Rocky Mountains, and from the Rio Grande to Great Slave Lake. The town
of Kearney, in south central Nebraska, may fairly be considered the
geographical center of distribution of the species, as it originally
existed, but ever since 1800, and until a few years ago, the center of
population has been in the Black Hills of southwestern Dakota.

Between the Rocky Mountains and the States lying along the Mississippi
River on the west, from Minnesota to Louisiana, the whole country was
one vast buffalo range, inhabited by millions of buffaloes. One could
fill a volume with the records of plainsmen and pioneers who penetrated
or crossed that vast region between 1800 and 1870, and were in turn
surprised, astounded, and frequently dismayed by the tens of thousands
of buffaloes they observed, avoided, or escaped from. They lived and
moved as no other quadrupeds ever have, in great multitudes, like grand
armies in review, covering scores of square miles at once. They were so
numerous they frequently stopped boats in the rivers, threatened to
overwhelm travelers on the plains, and in later years derailed
locomotives and cars, until railway engineers learned by experience the
wisdom of stopping their trains whenever there were buffaloes crossing
the track. On this feature of the buffalo's life history a few detailed
observations may be of value.

Near the mouth of the White River, in southwestern Dakota, Lewis and
Clark saw (in 1806) a herd of buffalo which caused them to make the
following record in their journal:

"These last animals [buffaloes] are now so numerous that from an
eminence we discovered more than we had ever seen before at one time;
and if it be not impossible to calculate the moving multitude, which
darkened the whole plains, we are convinced that twenty thousand would
be no exaggerated number."

When near the mouth of the Yellowstone, on their way down the Missouri,
a previous record had been made of a meeting with other herds:

"The buffalo now appear in vast numbers. A herd happened to be on their
way across the river [the Missouri]. Such was the multitude of these
animals that although the river, including an island over which they
passed, was a mile in length, the herd stretched as thick as they could
swim completely from one side to the other, and the party was obliged to
stop for an hour. They consoled themselves for the delay by killing four
of the herd, and then proceeded till at the distance of 45 miles they
halted on an island, below which two other herds of buffalo, as numerous
as the first, soon after crossed the river."[22]

[Note 22: Lewis and Clark's Exped., II, p. 395.]

Perhaps the most vivid picture ever afforded of the former abundance of
buffalo is that given by Col. R. I. Dodge in his "Plains of the Great
West," p. 120, _et seq._ It is well worth reproducing entire:

"In May, 1871, I drove in a light wagon from Old Fort Zara to Fort
Larned, on the Arkansas, 34 miles. At least 25 miles of this distance
was through one immense herd, composed of countless smaller herds of
buffalo then on their journey north. The road ran along the broad level
'bottom,' or valley, of the river. * * *

"The whole country appeared one great mass of buffalo, moving slowly to
the northward; and it was only when actually among them that it could be
ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of
innumerable small herds, of from fifty to two hundred animals, separated
from the surrounding herds by greater or less space, but still
separated. The herds in the valley sullenly got out of my way, and,
turning, stared stupidly at me, sometimes at only a few yards' distance.
When I had reached a point where the hills were no longer more than a
mile from the road, the buffalo on the hills, seeing an unusual object
in their rear, turned, stared an instant, then started at full speed
directly towards me, stampeding and bringing with them the numberless
herds through which they passed, and pouring down upon me all the herds,
no longer separated, but one immense compact mass of plunging animals,
mad with fright, and as irresistible as an avalanche.

"The situation was by no means pleasant. Reining up my horse (which was
fortunately a quiet old beast that had been in at the death of many a
buffalo, so that their wildest, maddest rush only caused him to cock his
ears in wonder at their unnecessary excitement), I waited until the
front of the mass was within 50 yards, when a few well-directed shots
from my rifle split the herd, and sent it pouring off in two streams to
my right and left. When all had passed me they stopped, apparently
perfectly satisfied, though thousands were yet within reach of my rifle
and many within less than 100 yards. Disdaining to fire again, I sent my
servant to cut out the tongues of the fallen. This occurred so
frequently within the next 10 miles, that when I arrived at Fort Larned
I had twenty-six tongues in my wagon, representing the greatest number
of buffalo that my conscience can reproach me for having murdered on any
single day. I was not hunting, wanted no meat, and would not voluntarily
have fired at these herds. I killed only in self-preservation and fired
almost every shot from the wagon."

At my request Colonel Dodge has kindly furnished me a careful estimate
upon which to base a calculation of the number of buffaloes in that
great herd, and the result is very interesting. In a private letter,
dated September 21, 1887, he writes as follows:

"The great herd on the Arkansas through which I passed could not have
averaged, _at rest_, over fifteen or twenty individuals to the acre, but
was, from my own observation, not less than 25 miles wide, and from
reports of hunters and others it was about five days in passing a given
point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top of Pawnee Rock I
could see from 6 to 10 miles in almost every direction. This whole vast
space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like one compact
mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be seen. I have seen
such a sight a great number of times, but never on so large a scale.

"That was the last of the great herds."

With these figures before us, it is not difficult to make a calculation
that will be somewhere near the truth of the number of buffaloes
actually seen in one day by Colonel Dodge on the Arkansas River during
that memorable drive, and also of the number of head in the entire herd.

According to his recorded observation, the herd extended along the river
for a distance of 25 miles, which was in reality the width of the vast
procession that was moving north, and back from the road as far as the
eye could reach, on both sides. It is making a low estimate to consider
the extent of the visible ground at 1 mile on either side. This gives a
strip of country 2 miles wide by 25 long, or a total of 50 square miles
covered with buffalo, averaging from fifteen to twenty to the acre.[23]
Taking the lesser number, in order to be below the truth rather than
above it, we find that the number actually seen on that day by Colonel
Dodge was in the neighborhood of 480,000, not counting the additional
number taken in at the view from the top of Pawnee Rock, which, if
added, would easily bring the total up to a round half million!

[Note 23: On the plains of Dakota, the Rev. Mr. Belcourt (Schoolcraft's
N. A. Indians, IV, p. 108) once counted two hundred and twenty-eight
buffaloes, a part of a great herd, feeding on a single acre of ground.
This of course was an unusual occurrence with buffaloes not stampeding,
but practically at rest. It is quite possible also that the extent of
the ground may have been underestimated.]

If the advancing multitude had been at all points 50 miles in length (as
it was known to have been in some places at least) by 25 miles in width,
and still averaged fifteen head to the acre of ground, it would have
contained the enormous number of 12,000,000 head. But, judging from the
general principles governing such migrations, it is almost certain that
the moving mass advanced in the shape of a wedge, which would make it
necessary to deduct about two-third from the grand total, which would
leave 4,000,000 as our estimate of the actual number of buffaloes in
this great herd, which I believe is more likely to be below the truth
than above it.

No wonder that the men of the West of those days, both white and red,
thought it would be impossible to exterminate such a mighty multitude.
The Indians of some tribes believed that the buffaloes issued from the
earth continually, and that the supply was necessarily inexhaustible.
And yet, in four short years the southern herd was almost totally
annihilated.

With such a lesson before our eyes, confirmed in every detail by living
testimony, who will dare to say that there will be an elk, moose,
caribou, mountain sheep, mountain goat, antelope, or black-tail deer
left alive in the United States in a wild state fifty years from this
date, ay, or even twenty-five?

Mr. William Blackmore contributes the following testimony to the
abundance of buffalo in Kansas:[24]

[Note 24: Plains of the Great West, p. xvi.]

"In the autumn of 1868, whilst crossing the plains on the Kansas Pacific
Railroad, for a distance of upwards of 120 miles, between Ellsworth and
Sheridan, we passed through an almost unbroken herd of buffalo. The
plains were blackened with them, and more than once the train had to
stop to allow unusually large herds to pass. * * * In 1872, whilst on a
scout for about a hundred miles south of Fort Dodge to the Indian
Territory, we were never out of sight of buffalo."

Twenty years hence, when not even a bone or a buffalo-chip remains above
ground throughout the West to mark the presence of the buffalo, it may
be difficult for people to believe that these animals ever existed in
such numbers as to constitute not only a serious annoyance, but very
often a dangerous menace to wagon travel across the plains, and also to
stop railway trains, and even throw them off the track. The like has
probably never occurred before in any country, and most assuredly never
will again, if the present rate of large game destruction all over the
world can be taken as a foreshadowing of the future. In this connection
the following additional testimony from Colonel Dodge ("Plains of the
Great West," p. 121) is of interest:

"The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad was then [in 1871-'72] in
process of construction, and nowhere could the peculiarity of the
buffalo of which I am speaking be better studied than from its trains.
If a herd was on the north side of the track, it would stand stupidly
gazing, and without a symptom of alarm, although the locomotive passed
within a hundred yards. If on the south side of the track, even though
at a distance of 1 or 2 miles from it, the passage of a train set the
whole herd in the wildest commotion. At full speed, and utterly
regardless of the consequences, it would make for the track on its line
of retreat. If the train happened not to be in its path, it crossed the
track and stopped satisfied. If the train was in its way, each
individual buffalo went at it with the desperation of despair, plunging
against or between locomotive and cars, just as its blind madness
chanced to direct it. Numbers were killed, but numbers still pressed on,
to stop and stare as soon as the obstacle had passed. After having
trains thrown off the track twice in one week, conductors learned to
have a very decided respect for the idiosyncrasies of the buffalo, and
when there was a possibility of striking a herd 'on the rampage' for the
north side of the track, the train was slowed up and sometimes stopped
entirely."

The accompanying illustration, reproduced from the "Plains of the Great
West," by the kind permission of the author, is, in one sense, ocular
proof that collisions between railway trains and vast herds of buffaloes
were so numerous that they formed a proper subject for illustration. In
regard to the stoppage of trains and derailment of locomotives by
buffaloes, Colonel Dodge makes the following allusion in the private
letter already referred to: "There are at least a hundred reliable
railroad men now employed on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad
who were witnesses of, and sometimes sufferers from, the wild rushes of
buffalo as described on page 121 of my book. I was at the time stationed
at Fort Dodge, and I was personally cognizant of several of these
'accidents.'"

[Illustration: SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALO ON THE KANSAS PACIFIC RAILROAD.
Reproduced from "The Plains of the Great West," by permission of the
author, Col. R. I. Dodge.]

The following, from the ever pleasing pen of Mr. Catlin, is of decided
interest in this connection:

"In one instance, near the mouth of White River, we met the most immense
herd crossing the Missouri River [in Dakota], and from an imprudence got
our boat into imminent danger amongst them, from which we were highly
delighted to make our escape. It was in the midst of the 'running
season,' and we had heard the 'roaring' (as it is called) of the herd
when we were several miles from them. When we came in sight, we were
actually terrified at the immense numbers that were streaming down the
green hills on one side of the river, and galloping up and over the
bluffs on the other. The river was filled, and in parts blackened with
their heads and horns, as they were swimming about, following up their
objects, and making desperate battle whilst they were swimming. I deemed
it imprudent for our canoe to be dodging amongst them, and ran it ashore
for a few hours, where we laid, waiting for the opportunity of seeing
the river clear, but we waited in vain. Their numbers, however, got
somewhat diminished at last, and we pushed off, and successfully made
our way amongst them. From the immense numbers that had passed the river
at that place, they had torn down the prairie bank of 15 feet in height,
so as to form a sort of road or landing place, where they all in
succession clambered up. Many in their turmoil had been wafted below
this landing, and unable to regain it against the swiftness of the
current, had fastened themselves along in crowds, hugging close to the
high bank under which they were standing. As we were drifting by these,
and supposing ourselves out of danger, I drew up my rifle and shot one
of them in the head, which tumbled into the water, and brought with him
a hundred others, which plunged in, and in a moment were swimming about
our canoe, and placing it in great danger. No attack was made upon us,
and in the confusion the poor beasts knew not, perhaps, the enemy that
was amongst them; but we were liable to be sunk by them, as they were
furiously hooking and climbing on to each other. I rose in my canoe, and
by my gestures and hallooing kept them from coming in contact with us
until we were out of their reach."[25]

[Note 25: Catlin's North American Indians, II, p. 13.]




IV. CHARACTER OF THE SPECIES.


1. _The buffaloes rank amongst ruminants._--With the American people,
and through them all others, familiarity with the buffalo has bred
contempt. The incredible numbers in which the animals of this species
formerly existed made their slaughter an easy matter, so much so that
the hunters and frontiersmen who accomplished their destruction have
handed down to us a contemptuous opinion of the size, character, and
general presence of our bison. And how could it be otherwise than that a
man who could find it in his heart to murder a majestic bull bison for a
hide worth only a dollar should form a one-dollar estimate of the
grandest ruminant that ever trod the earth? Men who butcher African
elephants for the sake of their ivory also entertain a similar estimate
of their victims.

With an acquaintance which includes fine living examples of all the
larger ruminants of the world except the musk-ox and the European bison,
I am sure that the American bison is the grandest of them all. His only
rivals for the kingship are the Indian bison, or gaur (_Bos gaurus_), of
Southern India, and the aurochs, or European bison, both of which
really surpass him in height, if not in actual balk also. The aurochs is
taller, and possesses a larger pelvis and heavier, stronger
hindquarters, but his body is decidedly smaller in all its proportions,
which gives him a lean and "leggy" look. The hair on the head, neck, and
forequarters of the aurochs is not nearly so long or luxuriant as on the
same parts of the American bison. This covering greatly magnifies the
actual bulk of the latter animal. Clothe the aurochs with the wonderful
pelage of our buffalo, give him the same enormous chest and body, and
the result would be a magnificent bovine monster, who would indeed stand
without a rival. But when first-class types of the two species are
placed side by side it seems to me that _Bison americanus_ will easily
rank his European rival.

The gaur has no long hair upon any part of his body or head. What little
hair he has is very short and thin, his hindquarters being almost naked.
I have seen hundreds of these animals at short range, and have killed
and skinned several very fine specimens, one of which stood 5 feet 10
inches in height at the shoulders. But, despite his larger bulk, his
appearance is not nearly so striking and impressive as that of the male
American bison. He seems like a huge ox running wild.

The magnificent dark brown frontlet and beard of the buffalo, the shaggy
coat of hair upon the neck, hump, and shoulders, terminating at the
knees in a thick mass of luxuriant black locks, to say nothing of the
dense coat of finer fur on the body and hindquarters, give to our
species not only an apparent height equal to that of the gaur, but a
grandeur and nobility of presence which are beyond all comparison
amongst ruminants.

The slightly larger bulk of the gaur is of little significance in a
comparison of the two species; for if size alone is to turn the scale,
we must admit that a 500-pound lioness, with no mane whatever, is a more
majestic looking animal than a 450-pound lion, with a mane which has
earned him his title of king of beasts.

2. _Change of form in captivity._--By a combination of unfortunate
circumstances, the American bison is destined to go down to posterity
shorn of the honor which is his due, and appreciated at only half his
worth. The hunters who slew him were from the very beginning so absorbed
in the scramble for spoils that they had no time to measure or weigh
him, nor even to notice the majesty of his personal appearance on his
native heath.

In captivity he fails to develop as finely as in his wild state, and
with the loss of his liberty he becomes a tame-looking animal. He gets
fat and short-bodied, and the lack of vigorous and constant exercise
prevents the development of bone and muscle which made the prairie
animal what he was.

From observations made upon buffaloes that have been reared in
captivity, I am firmly convinced that confinement and
semi-domestication are destined to effect striking changes in the form
of _Bison americanus_. While this is to be expected to a certain extent
with most large species, the changes promise to be most conspicuous in
the buffalo. The most striking change is in the body between the hips
and the shoulders. As before remarked, it becomes astonishingly short
and rotund, and through liberal feeding and total lack of exercise the
muscles of the shoulders and hindquarters, especially the latter, are
but feebly developed.

The most striking example of the change of form in the captive buffalo
is the cow in the Central Park Menagerie, New York. Although this animal
is fully adult, and has given birth to three fine calves, she is small,
astonishingly short-bodied, and in comparison with the magnificently
developed cows taken in 1886 by the writer in Montana, she seems almost
like an animal of another species.

Both the live buffaloes in the National Museum collection of living
animals are developing the same shortness of body and lack of muscle,
and when they attain their full growth will but poorly resemble the
splendid proportions of the wild specimens in the Museum mounted group,
each of which has been mounted from a most careful and elaborate series
of post-mortem measurements. It may fairly be considered, however, that
the specimens taken by the Smithsonian expedition were in every way more
perfect representatives of the species than have been usually taken in
times past, for the simple reason that on account of the muscle they had
developed in the numerous chases they had survived, and the total
absence of the fat which once formed such a prominent feature of the
animal, they were of finer form, more active habit, and keener
intelligence than buffaloes possessed when they were so numerous. Out of
the millions which once composed the great northern herd, those
represented the survival of the fittest, and their existence at that
time was chiefly due to the keenness of their senses and their splendid
muscular powers in speed and endurance.

Under such conditions it is only natural that animals of the highest
class should be developed. On the other hand, captivity reverses all
these conditions, while yielding an equally abundant food supply.

In no feature is the change from natural conditions to captivity more
easily noticeable than in the eye. In the wild buffalo the eye is always
deeply set, well protected by the edge of the bony orbit, and perfect in
form and expression. The lids are firmly drawn around the ball, the
opening is so small that the white portion of the eyeball is entirely
covered, and the whole form and appearance of the organ is as shapely
and as pleasing in expression as the eye of a deer.

In the captive the various muscles which support and control the eyeball
seem to relax and thicken, and the ball protrudes far beyond its normal
plane, showing a circle of white all around the iris, and bulging out in
a most unnatural way. I do not mean to assert that this is common in
captive buffaloes generally, but I have observed it to be disagreeably
conspicuous in many.

Another change which takes place in the form of the captive buffalo is
an arching of the back in the middle, which has a tendency to make the
hump look lower at the shoulders and visibly alters the outline of the
back. This tendency to "hump up" the back is very noticeable in domestic
cattle and horses during rainy weather. While a buffalo on his native
heath would seldom assume such an attitude of dejection and misery, in
captivity, especially if it be anything like close confinement, it is
often to be observed, and I fear will eventually become a permanent
habit. Indeed, I think it may be confidently predicted that the time
will come when naturalists who have never seen a wild buffalo will
compare the specimens composing the National Museum group with the
living representatives to be seen in captivity and assert that the
former are exaggerations in both form and size.

3. _Mounted Specimens in Museums._--Of the "stuffed" specimens to be
found in museums, all that I have ever seen outside of the National
Museum and even those within that institution up to 1886, were "stuffed"
in reality as well as in name. The skins that have been rammed full of
straw or excelsior have lost from 8 to 12 inches in height at the
shoulders, and the high and sharp hump of the male has become a huge,
thick, rounded mass like the hump of a dromedary, and totally unlike the
hump of a bison. It is impossible for any taxidermist to stuff a
buffalo-skin with loose materials and produce a specimen which fitly
represents the species. The proper height and form of the animal can be
secured and retained only by the construction of a manikin, or statue,
to carry the skin. In view of this fact, which surely must be apparent
to even the most casual observer, it is to be earnestly hoped that here
no one in authority will ever consent to mount or have mounted a
valuable skin of a bison in any other way than over a properly
constructed manikin.

4. _The Calf._--The breeding season of the buffalo is from the 1st of
July to the 1st of October. The young cow does not breed until she is
three years old, and although two calves are sometimes produced at a
birth, one is the usual number. The calves are born in April, May, and
June, and sometimes, though rarely, as late as the middle of August. The
calf follows its mother until it is a year old, or even older. In May,
1886, the Smithsonian expedition captured a calf alive, which had been
abandoned by its mother because it could not keep up with her. The
little creature was apparently between two and three weeks old, and was
therefore born about May 1. Unlike the young of nearly all other
_Bovidæ_, the buffalo calf during the first months of its existence is
clad with hair of a totally different color from that which covers him
during the remainder of his life. His pelage is a luxuriant growth of
rather long, wavy hair, of a uniform brownish-yellow or "sandy" color
(cinnamon, or yellow ocher, with a shade of Indian yellow) all over the
head, body, and tail, in striking contrast with the darker colors of the
older animals. On the lower half of the leg it is lighter, shorter, and
straight. On the shoulders and hump the hair is longer than on the
other portions, being 11/2 inches in length, more wavy, and already
arranges itself in the tufts, or small bunches, so characteristic in the
adult animal.

On the extremity of the muzzle, including the chin, the hair is very
short, straight, and as light in color as the lower portions of the leg.
Starting on the top of the nose, an inch behind the nostrils, and
forming a division between the light yellowish muzzle and the more
reddish hair on the remainder of the head, there is an irregular band of
dark, straight hair, which extends down past the corner of the mouth to
a point just back of the chin, where it unites. From the chin backward
the dark band increases in breadth and intensity, and continues back
half way to the angle of the jaw. At that point begins a sort of under
mane of wavy, dark-brown hair, nearly 3 inches long, and extends back
along the median line of the throat to a point between the fore legs,
where it abruptly terminates. From the back of the head another streak
of dark hair extends backward along the top of the neck, over the hump,
and down to the lumbar region, where it fades out entirely. These two
dark bands are in sharp contrast to the light sandy hair adjoining.

The tail is densely haired. The tuft on the end is quite luxuriant, and
shows a center of darker hair. The hair on the inside of the ear is
dark, but that on the outside is sandy.

The naked portion of the nose is light Vandyke-brown, with a pinkish
tinge, and the edge of the eyelid the same. The iris is dark brown. The
horn at three months is about 1 inch in length, and is a mere little
black stub. In the male, the hump is clearly defined, but by no means so
high in proportion as in the adult animal. The hump of the calf from
which this description is drawn is of about the same relative angle and
height as that of an adult cow buffalo. The specimen itself is well
represented in the accompanying plate.

The measurements of this specimen in the flesh were as follows:

+---------------------------------------------------------+
|       BISON AMERICANUS. (Male; four months old.)        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
|       (_No. 15503, National Museum collection._)        |
+---------------------------------------------------------+
|                                           |Feet.|Inches.|
|Height at shoulders                        |  2  |   8   |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail |  3  |  101/2  |
|Depth of chest                             |  1  |   4   |
|Depth of flank                             |     |  10   |
|Girth behind fore leg                      |  3  |    1/2  |
|From base of horns around end of nose      |  1  |   71/2  |
|Length of tail vertebræ                    |     |   7   |
+---------------------------------------------------------+

The calves begin to shed their coat of red hair about the beginning of
August. The first signs of the change, however, appear about a month
earlier than that, in the darkening of the mane under the throat, and
also on the top of the neck.[26]

[Note 26: Our captive had, in some way, bruised the skin on his
forehead, and in June all the hair came off the top of his head, leaving
it quite bald. We kept the skin well greased with porpoise oil, and by
the middle of July a fine coat of black hair had grown out all over the
surface that had previously been bare.]

By the 1st of August the red hair on the body begins to fall off in
small patches, and the growth of fine, new, dark hair seems to actually
crowd off the old. As is the case with the adult animals, the shortest
hair is the first to be shed, but the change of coat takes place in
about half the time that it occupies in the older animals.

By the 1st of October the transformation is complete, and not even a
patch of the old red hair remains upon the new suit of brown. This is
far from being the case with the old bulls and cows, for even up to the
last week in October we found them with an occasional patch of the old
hair still clinging to the new, on the back or shoulders.

Like most young animals, the calf of the buffalo is very easily tamed,
especially if taken when only a few weeks old. The one captured in
Montana by the writer, resisted at first as stoutly as it was able, by
butting with its head, but after we had tied its legs together and
carried it to camp, across a horse, it made up its mind to yield
gracefully to the inevitable, and from that moment became perfectly
docile. It very soon learned to drink milk in the most satisfactory
manner, and adapted itself to its new surroundings quite as readily as
any domestic calf would have done. Its only cry was a low-pitched,
pig-like grunt through the nose, which was uttered only when hungry or
thirsty.

I have been told by old frontiersmen and buffalo-hunters that it used to
be a common practice for a hunter who had captured a young calf to make
it follow him by placing one of his fingers in its mouth, and allowing
the calf to suck at it for a moment. Often a calf has been induced in
this way to follow a horseman for miles, and eventually to join his camp
outfit. It is said that the same result has been accomplished with
calves by breathing a few times into their nostrils. In this connection
Mr. Catlin's observations on the habits of buffalo calves are most
interesting.

"In pursuing a large herd of buffaloes at the season when their calves
are but a few weeks old, I have often been exceedingly amused with the
curious maneuvers of these shy little things. Amidst the thundering
confusion of a throng of several hundreds or several thousands of these
animals, there will be many of the calves that lose sight of their dams;
and being left behind by the throng, and the swift-passing hunters, they
endeavor to secrete themselves, when they are exceedingly put to it on a
level prairie, where naught can be seen but the short grass of 6 or 8
inches in height, save an occasional bunch of wild sage a few inches
higher, to which the poor affrighted things will run, and dropping on
their knees, will push their noses under it and into the grass, where
they will stand for hours, with their eyes shut, imagining themselves
securely hid, whilst they are standing up quite straight upon their hind
feet, and can easily be seen at several miles distance. It is a familiar
amusement with us, accustomed to these scenes, to retreat back over the
ground where we have just escorted the herd, and approach these little
trembling things, which stubbornly maintain their positions, with
their noses pushed under the grass and their eyes strained upon us, us
we dismount from our horses and are passing around them. From this fixed
position they are sure not to move until hands are laid upon them, and
then for the shins of a novice we can extend our sympathy; or if he can
preserve the skin on his bones from the furious buttings of its head, we
know how to congratulate him on his signal success and good luck.

[Illustration: From photograph of group in National Museum. Engraved by
R. H. Carson. BUFFALO COW, CALF (FOUR MONTHS OLD), AND YEARLING.
Reproduced from the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, by permission of the
publishers.]

"In these desperate struggles for a moment, the little thing is
conquered, and makes no further resistance. And I have often, in
concurrence with a known custom of the country, held my hands over the
eyes of the calf and breathed a few strong breaths into its nostrils,
after which I have, with my hunting companions, rode several miles into
our encampment with the little prisoner busily following the heels of my
horse the whole way, as closely and as affectionately as its instinct
would attach it to the company of its dam.

"This is one of the most extraordinary things that I have met with in
the habits of this wild country, and although I had often heard of it,
and felt unable exactly to believe it, I am now willing to bear
testimony to the fact from the numerous instances which I have witnessed
since I came into the country. During the time that I resided at this
post [mouth of the Tetón River] in the spring of the year, on my way up
the river, I assisted (in numerous hunts of the buffalo with the fur
company's men) in bringing in, in the above manner, several of these
little prisoners, which sometimes followed for 5 or 6 miles close to our
horse's heels, and even into the fur company's fort, and into the stable
where our horses were led. In this way, before I left the headwaters of
the Missouri, I think we had collected about a dozen, which Mr. Laidlaw
was successfully raising with the aid of a good milch cow."[27]

[Note 27: North American Indians, I, 255.]

It must be remembered, however, that such cases as the above were
exceptional, even with the very young calves, which alone exhibited the
trait described. Such instances occurred only when buffaloes existed in
such countless numbers that man's presence and influence had not
affected the character of the animal in the least. No such instances of
innocent stupidity will ever be displayed again, even by the youngest
calf. The war of extermination, and the struggle for life and security
have instilled into the calf, even from its birth, a mortal fear of both
men and horses, and the instinct to fly for life. The calf captured by
our party was not able to run, but in the most absurd manner it butted
our horses as soon as they came near enough, and when Private Moran
attempted to lay hold of the little fellow it turned upon him, struck
him in the stomach with its head, and sent him sprawling into the
sage-brush. If it had only possessed the strength, it would have led us
a lively chase.

During 1886 four other buffalo calves were either killed or caught by
the cowboys on the Missouri-Yellowstone divide, in the Dry Creek
region. All of them ran the moment they discovered their enemies. Two
were shot and killed. One was caught by a cowboy named Horace Brodhurst,
ear marked, and turned loose. The fifth one was caught in September on
the Porcupine Creek round-up. He was then about five months old, and
being abundantly able to travel he showed a clean pair of heels. It took
three fresh horses, one after another, to catch him, and his final
capture was due to exhaustion, and not to the speed of any of his
pursuers. The distance covered by the chase, from the point where his
first pursuer started to where the third one finally lassoed him, was
considered to be at least 15 miles. But the capture came to naught, for
on the following day the calf died from overexertion and want of milk.

Colonel Dodge states that the very young calves of a herd have to depend
upon the old bulls for protection, and seldom in vain. The mothers
abandon their offspring on slight provocation, and even none at all
sometimes, if we may judge from the condition of the little waif that
fell into our hands. Had its mother remained with it, or even in its
neighborhood, we should at least have seen her, but she was nowhere
within a radius of 5 miles at the time her calf was discovered. Nor did
she return to look for it, as two of us proved by spending the night in
the sage-brush at the very spot where the calf was taken. Colonel Dodge
declares that "the cow seems to possess scarcely a trace of maternal
instinct, and, when frightened, will abandon and run away from her calf
without the slightest hesitation. * * * When the calves are young they
are always kept in the center of each small herd, while the bulls
dispose themselves on the outside."[28]

[Note 28: Plains of the Great West, pp. 124, 125.]

Apparently the maternal instinct of the cow buffalo was easily mastered
by fear. That it was often manifested, however, is proven by the
following from Audubon and Bachman:[29]

[Note 29: Quadrupeds of North America, vol. II, pp. 38, 39.]

"Buffalo calves are drowned from being unable to ascend the steep banks
of the rivers across which they have just swam, as the cows cannot help
them, although they stand near the bank, and will not leave them to
their fate unless something alarms them.

"On one occasion Mr. Kipp, of the American Fur Company, caught eleven
calves, their dams all the time standing near the top of the bank.
Frequently, however, the cows leave the young to their fate, when most
of them perish. In connection with this part of the subject, we may add
that we were informed, when on the Upper Missouri River, that when the
banks of that river were practicable for cows, and their calves could
not follow them, they went down again, after having gained the top, and
would remain by them until forced away by the cravings of hunger. When
thus forced by the necessity of saving themselves to quit their young,
they seldom, if ever, return to them. When a large herd of these wild
animals are crossing a river, the calves or yearlings manage to get on
the backs of the cows, and are thus conveyed safely over."

5. _The Yearling._--During the first five months of his life, the calf
changes its coat completely, and becomes in appearance a totally
different animal. By the time he is six months old he has taken on all
the colors which distinguish him in after life, excepting that upon his
fore quarters. The hair on the head has started out to attain the
luxuriant length and density which is so conspicuous in the adult, and
its general color is a rich dark brown, shading to black under the chin
and throat. The fringe under the neck is long, straight, and black, and
the under parts, the back of the fore arm, the outside of thigh, and the
tail-tuft are all black.

The color of the shoulder, the side, and upper part of the hind quarter
is a peculiar smoky brown ("broccoli brown" of Ridgway), having in
connection with the darker browns of the other parts a peculiar faded
appearance, quite as if it were due to the bleaching power of the sun.
On the fore quarters there is none of the bright straw color so
characteristic of the adult animal. Along the top of the neck and
shoulders, however, this color has at last begun to show faintly. The
hair on the body is quite luxuriant, both in length and density, in both
respects quite equaling, if not even surpassing, that of the finest
adults. For example, the hair on the side of the mounted yearling in the
Museum group has a length of 2 to 21/2 inches, while that on the same
region of the adult bull, whose pelage is particularly fine, is recorded
as being 2 inches only.

The horn is a straight, conical spike from 4 to 6 inches long, according
to age, and perfectly black. The legs are proportionally longer and
larger in the joints than those of the full-grown animal. The
countenance of the yearling is quite interesting. The sleepy, helpless,
innocent expression of the very young calf has given place to a
wide-awake, mischievous look, and he seems ready to break away and run
at a second's notice.

The measurements of the yearling in the Museum group are as follows:

+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|BISON AMERICANUS. (Male yearling, taken Oct. 31, 1886. Montana.)|
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|           (_No. 15694, National Museum collection._)           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                            | Feet.| Inches.    |
|Height at shoulders                         |   3  |    5       |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail  |   5  |            |
|Depth of chest                              |   1  |   11       |
|Depth of flank                              |   1  |    1       |
|Girth behind fore leg                       |   4  |    3       |
|From base of horns around end of nose       |   2  |    11/2      |
|Length of tail vertebræ                     |      |   10       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

6. _The Spike Bull._--In hunters' parlance, the male buffalo between the
"yearling" age and four years is called a "spike" bull, in recognition
of the fact that up to the latter period the horn is a spike, either
perfectly straight, or with a curve near its base, and a straight point
the rest of the way up. The curve of the horn is generally hidden in
the hair, and the only part visible is the straight, terminal spike.
Usually the spike points diverge from each other, but often they are
parallel, and also perpendicular. In the fourth year, however, the
points of the horns begin to curve inward toward each other, describing
equal arcs of the same circle, as if they were going to meet over the
top of the head.

In the handsome young "spike" bull in the Museum group, the hair on the
shoulders has begun to take on the length, the light color, and tufted
appearance of the adult, beginning at the highest point of the hump and
gradually spreading. Immediately back of this light patch the hair is
long, but dark and woolly in appearance. The leg tufts have doubled in
length, and reveal the character of the growth that may be finally
expected. The beard has greatly lengthened, as also has the hair upon
the bridge of the nose, the forehead, ears, jaws, and all other portions
of the head except the cheeks.

The "spike" period of a buffalo is a most interesting one. Like a
seventeen-year-old boy, the young bull shows his youth in so many ways
it is always conspicuous, and his countenance is so suggestive of a
half-bearded youth it fixes the interest to a marked degree. He is
active, alert, and suspicious, and when he makes up his mind to run the
hunter may as well give up the chase.

By a strange fatality, our spike bull appears to be the only one in any
museum, or even in preserved existence, as far as can be ascertained.
Out of the twenty-five buffaloes killed and preserved by the Smithsonian
expedition, ten of which were adult bulls, this specimen was the only
male between the yearling and the adult ages. An effort to procure
another entire specimen of this age from Texas yielded only two spike
heads. It is to be sincerely regretted that more specimens representing
this very interesting period of the buffalo's life have not been
preserved, for it is now too late to procure wild specimens.

The following are the post-mortem dimensions of our specimen:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                        BISON AMERICANUS.                      |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|("Spike" bull, two years old; taken October 14, 1886. Montana.)|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|          (_No. 15685, National Museum collection._)           |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                           | Feet.| Inches.    |
|Height at shoulders                        |   4  |    2       |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail |   7  |    7       |
|Depth of chest                             |   2  |    3       |
|Depth of flank                             |   1  |    7       |
|Girth behind fore leg                      |   6  |    8       |
|From base of horns around end of nose      |   2  |    81/2      |
|Length of tail vertebræ                    |   1  |            |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

7. _The Adult Bull._--In attempting to describe the adult male in the
National Museum group, it is difficult to decide which feature is most
prominent, the massive, magnificent head, with its shaggy frontlet and
luxuriant black beard, or the lofty hump, with its showy covering of
straw-yellow hair, in thickly-growing locks 4 inches long. But the head
is irresistible in its claims to precedence.

[Illustration: SPIKE BULL. From the group in the National Museum.
Reproduced from the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, by permission of the
publishers.]

It must be observed at this point that in many respects this animal is
an exceptionally fine one. In actual size of frame, and in quantity and
quality of pelage, it is far superior to the average, even of wild
buffaloes when they were most numerous and at their best.[30] In one
respect, however, that of actual bulk, it is believed that this specimen
may have often been surpassed. When buffaloes were numerous, and not
required to do any great amount of running in order to exist, they were,
in the autumn months, very fat. Audubon says: "A large bison bull will
generally weigh nearly 2,000 pounds, and a fat cow about 1,200 pounds.
We weighed one of the bulls killed by our party, and found it to reach
1,727 pounds, although it had already lost a good deal of blood. This
was an old bull, and not fat. It had probably weighed more at some
previous period."[31] Our specimen when killed (by the writer, December
6, 1886) was in full vigor, superbly muscled, and well fed, but he
carried not a single pound of fat. For years the never-ceasing race for
life had utterly prevented the secretion of useless and cumbersome fat,
and his "subsistence" had gone toward the development of useful muscle.
Having no means by which to weigh him, we could only estimate his
weight, in which I called for the advice of my cowboys, all of whom were
more or less familiar with the weight of range cattle, and one I
regarded as an expert. At first the estimated weight of the animal was
fixed at 1,700 pounds, but with a constitutional fear of estimating over
the truth, I afterward reduced it to 1,600 pounds. This I am now well
convinced was an error, for I believe the first figure to have been
nearer the truth.

[Note 30: In testimony whereof the following extract from a letter
written by General Stewart Van Vliet, on March 10, 1897, to Professor
Baird, is of interest:

"MY DEAR PROFESSOR: On the receipt of your letter of the 6th instant I
saw General Sheridan, and yesterday we called on your taxidermist and
examined the buffalo bull he is setting up for the Museum. I don't think
I have ever seen a more splendid specimen in my life. General Sheridan
and I have seen millions of buffalo on the plains in former times. I
have killed hundreds, but I never killed a larger animal than the one in
the possession of your taxidermist."]

[Note 31: Quadrupeds of North America, vol. II, p. 44.]

In mounting the skin of this animal, we endeavored by every means in our
power, foremost of which were three different sets of measurements,
taken from the dead animal, one set to check another, to reproduce him
when mounted in exactly the same form he possessed in life--muscular,
but not fat.

The color of the body and hindquarters of a buffalo is very peculiar,
and almost baffles intelligent description. Audubon calls it "between a
dark umber and liver-shining brown." I once saw a competent artist
experiment with his oil-colors for a quarter of an hour before he
finally struck the combination which exactly matched the side of our
large bull. To my eyes, the color is a pale gray-brown or smoky gray.
The range of individual variation is considerable, some being uniformly
darker than the average type, and others lighter. While the under parts
of most adults are dark brown or blackish brown, others are actually
black. The hair on the body and hinder parts is fine, wavy on the
outside, and woolly underneath, and very dense. Add to this the
thickness of the skin itself, and the combination forms a covering that
is almost impervious to cold.

The entire fore quarter region, _e. g._, the shoulders, the hump, and
the upper part of the neck, is covered with a luxuriant growth of pale
yellow hair (Naples yellow + yellow ocher), which stands straight out in
a dense mass, disposed in handsome tufts. The hair is somewhat woolly in
its nature, and the ends are as even as if the whole mass had lately
been gone over with shears and carefully clipped. This hair is 4 inches
in length. As the living animal moved his head from side to side, the
hair parted in great vertical furrows, so deep that the skin itself
seemed almost in sight. As before remarked, to comb this hair would
utterly destroy its naturalness, and it should never be done under any
circumstances. Standing as it does between the darker hair of the body
on one side and the almost black mass of the head on the other, this
light area is rendered doubly striking and conspicuous by contrast. It
not only covers the shoulders, but extends back upon the thorax, where
it abruptly terminates on a line corresponding to the sixth rib.

From the shoulder-joint downward, the color shades gradually into a dark
brown until at the knee it becomes quite black. The huge fore-arm is
lost in a thick mass of long, coarse, and rather straight hair 10 inches
in length. This growth stops abruptly at the knee, but it hangs within 6
inches of the hoof. The front side of this mass is blackish brown, but
it rapidly shades backward and downward into jet-black.

The hair on the top of the head lies in a dense, matted mass, forming a
perfect crown of rich brown (burnt sienna) locks, 16 inches in length,
hanging over the eyes, almost enveloping both horns, and spreading back
in rich, dark masses upon the light-colored neck.

On the cheeks the hair is of the same blackish brown color, but
comparatively short, and lies in beautiful waves. On the bridge of the
nose the hair is about 6 inches in length and stands out in a thick,
uniform, very curly mass, which always looks as if it had just been
carefully combed.

Immediately around the nose and mouth the hair is very short, straight
and stiff, and lies close to the skin, which leaves the nostrils and
lips fully exposed. The front part of the chin is similarly clad, and
its form is perfectly flat, due to the habit of the animal in feeding
upon the short, crisp buffalo grass, in the course of which the chin is
pressed flat against the ground. The end of the muzzle is very massive,
measuring 2 feet 2 inches in circumference just back of the nostrils.

The hair of the chin-beard is coarse, perfectly straight, jet black, and
111/2 inches in length on our old bull.

Occasionally a bull is met with who is a genuine Esau amongst his kind.
I once saw a bull, of medium size but fully adult, whose hair was a
wonder to behold. I have now in my possession a small lock of hair which
I plucked from his forehead, and its length is 221/2 inches. His horns
were entirely concealed by the immense mass of long hair that nature had
piled upon his head, and his beard was as luxuriant as his frontlet.

[Illustration: BULL BUFFALO IN NATIONAL MUSEUM GROUP. Drawn by Ernest E.
Thompson.]

The nostril opening is large and wide. The color of the hairless
portions of the nose and mouth is shiny Vandyke brown and black, with a
strong tinge of bluish-purple, but this latter tint is not noticeable
save upon close examination, and the eyelid is the same. The iris is of
an irregular pear-shaped outline, 1-5/16 inches in its longest diameter,
very dark, reddish brown in color, with a black edging all around it.
Ordinarily no portion of the white eyeball is visible, but the broad
black band surrounding the iris, and a corner patch of white, is
frequently shown by the turning of the eye. The tongue is bluish purple,
as are the lips inside.

The hoofs and horns are, in reality, jet black throughout, but the horn
often has at the base a scaly, dead appearance on the outside, and as
the wrinkles around the base increase with age and scale up and gather
dirt, that part looks gray. The horns of bulls taken in their prime are
smooth, glossy black, and even look as if they had been half polished
with oil.

As the bull increases in age, the outer layers of the horn begin to
break off at the tip and pile up one upon another, until the horn has
become a thick, blunt stub, with only the tip of what was once a neat
and shapely point showing at the end. The bull is then known as a
"stub-horn," and his horns increase in roughness and unsightliness as he
grows older. From long rubbing on the earth, the outer curve of each
horn is gradually worn flat, which still further mars its symmetry.

The horns serve as a fair index of the age of a bison. After he is three
years old, the bison adds each year a ring around the base of his horns,
the same as domestic cattle. If we may judge by this, the horn begins to
break when the bison is about ten or eleven years old, and the stubbing
process gradually continues during the rest of his life. Judging by the
teeth, and also the oldest horns I have seen, I am of the opinion that
the natural life time of the bison is about twenty-five years; certainly
no less.

+--------------------------------------------------------+
|                   BISON AMERICANUS.                    |
|                (Male, eleven years old.                |
|           Taken December 6, 1866. Montana.)            |
|       (_No. 15703, National Museum collection._)       |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
|                                          |Feet.|Inches.|
|Height at shoulders to the skin           |  5  |   8   |
|Height at shoulders to top of hair        |  6  |  --   |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail| 10  |   2   |
|Depth of chest                            |  3  |  10   |
|Depth of flank                            |  2  |   0   |
|Girth behind fore leg                     |  8  |   4   |
|From base of horns around end of nose     |  3  |   6   |
|Length of tail vertebræ                   |  1  |   3   |
|Circumference of muzzle back of nostrils  |  2  |   2   |
+--------------------------------------------------------+

8. _The Cow in the third year._--The young cow of course possesses the
same youthful appearance already referred to as characterizing the
"spike" bull. The hair on the shoulders has begun to take on the light
straw-color, and has by this time attained a length which causes it to
arrange itself in tufts, or locks. The body colors have grown darker,
and reached their permanent tone. Of course the hair on the head has by
no means attained its full length, and the head is not at all handsome.

The horns are quite small, but the curve is well defined, and they
distinctly mark the sex of the individual, even at the beginning of the
third year.

+------------------------------------------------------------+
|                     BISON AMERICANUS.                      |
|(Young cow, in third year. Taken October 14, 1886. Montana.)|
+------------------------------------------------------------+
|         (_No. 15686, National Museum collection._)         |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                          |Feet.| Inches.   |
|Height at shoulders                       |  4  |    5      |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail|  7  |    7      |
|Depth of chest                            |  2  |    4      |
|Depth of flank                            |  1  |    4      |
|Girth behind fore leg                     |  5  |    4      |
|From base of horns around end of nose     |  2  |    81/2     |
|Length of tail vertebræ                   |  1  |    ..     |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

9. _The adult Cow._--The upper body color of the adult cow in the
National Museum group (see Plate) is a rich, though not intense, Vandyke
brown, shading imperceptibly down the sides into black, which spreads
over the entire under parts and inside of the thighs. The hair on the
lower joints of the leg is in turn lighter, being about the same shade
as that on the loins. The fore-arm is concealed in a mass of almost
black hair, which gradually shades lighter from the elbow upward and
along the whole region of the humerus. On the shoulder itself the hair
is pale yellow or straw-color (Naples yellow + yellow ocher), which
extends down in a point toward the elbow. From the back of the head a
conspicuous baud of curly, dark-brown hair extends back like a mane
along the neck and to the top of the hump, beyond which it soon fades
out.

The hair on the head is everywhere a rich burnt-sienna brown, except
around the corners of the mouth, where it shades into black.

The horns of the cow bison are slender, but solid for about two-thirds
of their length from the tip, ringed with age near their base, and quite
black. Very often they are imperfect in shape, and out of every five
pairs at least one is generally misshapen. Usually one horn is
"crumpled," _e. g._, dwarfed in length and unnaturally thickened at the
base, and very often one horn is found to be merely an unsightly,
misshapen stub.

[Illustration: From a photograph. Engraved by Frederick Juengling. BULL
BUFFALO. (REAR VIEW.) Reproduced from the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, by
permission of the publishers.]

The udder of the cow bison is very small, as might be expected of an
animal which must do a great deal of hard traveling, but the milk is
said to be very rich. Some authorities declare that it requires the
milk of two domestic cows to satisfy one buffalo calf, but this, I
think, is an error. Our calf began in May to consume 6 quarts of
domestic milk daily, which by June 10 had increased to 8, and up to July
10, 9 quarts was the utmost it could drink. By that time it began to eat
grass, but the quantity of milk disposed of remained about the same.

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                       BISON AMERICANUS.                       |
|(Adult cow, eight years old. Taken November 18, 1886. Montana.)|
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|          (_No. 15767, National Museum collection._)           |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                          | Feet.| Inches.     |
|Height at shoulders                       |   4  |   10        |
|Length, head and body to insertion of tail|   8  |    6        |
|Depth of chest                            |   3  |    7        |
|Depth of flank                            |   1  |    7        |
|Girth behind fore leg                     |   6  |   10        |
|From base of horns around end of nose     |   3  |             |
|Length of tail vertebræ                   |   1  |             |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

10. _The "Wood," or "Mountain" Buffalo._--Having myself never seen a
specimen of the so called "mountain buffalo" or "wood buffalo," which
some writers accord the rank of a distinct variety, I can only quote the
descriptions of others. While most Rocky Mountain hunters consider the
bison of the mountains quite distinct from that of the plains, it must
be remarked that no two authorities quite agree in regard to the
distinguishing characters of the variety they recognize. Colonel Dodge
states that "His body is lighter, whilst his legs are shorter, but much
thicker and stronger, than the plains animal, thus enabling him to
perform feats of climbing and tumbling almost incredible in such a huge
and unwieldy beast."[32]

[Note 32: Plains of the Great West, p. 144.]

The belief in the existence of a distinct mountain variety is quite
common amongst hunters and frontiersmen all along the eastern slope the
Rocky Mountains as far north as the Peace River. In this connection the
following from Professor Henry Youle Hind[33] is of general interest:

[Note 33: Red River, Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, II p.
104-105.]

"The existence of two kinds of buffalo is firmly believed by many
hunters at Red River; they are stated to be the prairie buffalo and the
buffalo of the woods. Many old hunters with whom I have conversed on
this subject aver that the so-called wood buffalo is a distinct species,
and although they are not able to offer scientific proofs, yet the
difference in size, color, hair, and horns, are enumerated as the
evidence upon which they base their statement. Men from their youth
familiar with these animals in the great plains, and the varieties which
are frequently met with in large herds, still cling to this opinion. The
buffalo of the plains are not always of the dark and rich bright brown
which forms their characteristic color. They are sometimes seen from
white to almost black, and a gray buffalo is not at all uncommon.
Buffalo emasculated by wolves are often found on the prairies, where
they grow to an immense size; the skin of the buffalo ox is recognized
by the shortness of the wool and by its large dimensions. The skin of
the so-called wood buffalo is much larger than that of the common
animal, the hair is very short, mane or hair about the neck short and
soft, and altogether destitute of curl, which is the common feature in
the hair or wool of the prairie animal. Two skins of the so-called wood
buffalo, which I saw at Selkirk Settlement, bore a very close
resemblance to the skin of the Lithuanian bison, judging from the
specimens of that species which I have since had an opportunity of
seeing in the British Museum.

"The wood buffalo is stated to be very scarce, and only found north of
the Saskatchewan and on the flanks of the Rocky Mountains. It never
ventures into the open plains. The prairie buffalo, on the contrary,
generally avoids the woods in summer and keeps to the open country; but
in winter they are frequently found in the woods of the Little Souris,
Saskatchewan, the Touchwood Hills, and the aspen groves on the
Qu'Appelle. There is no doubt that formerly the prairie buffalo ranged
through open woods almost as much as he now does through the prairies."

Mr. Harrison S. Young, an officer of the Hudson's Bay Fur Company,
stationed at Fort Edmonton, writes me as follows in a letter dated
October 22, 1887: "In our district of Athabasca, along the Salt River,
there are still a few wood buffalo killed every year; but they are fast
diminishing in numbers, and are also becoming very shy."

In Prof. John Macoun's "Manitoba and the Great Northwest," page 342,
there occurs the following reference to the wood buffalo: "In the winter
of 1870 the last buffalo were killed north of Peace River; but in 1875
about one thousand head were still in existence between the Athabasca
and Peace Rivers, north of Little Slave Lake. These are called wood
buffalo by the hunters, but diner only in size from those of the plain."

In the absence of facts based on personal observations, I may be
permitted to advance an opinion in regard to the wood buffalo. There is
some reason for the belief that certain changes of form may have taken
place in the buffaloes that have taken up a permanent residence in
rugged and precipitous mountain regions. Indeed, it is hardly possible
to understand how such a radical change in the habitat of an animal
could fail, through successive generations, to effect certain changes in
the animal itself. It seems to me that the changes which would take
place in a band of plains buffaloes transferred to a permanent mountain
habitat can be forecast with a marked degree of certainty. The changes
that take place under such conditions in cattle, swine, and goats are
well known, and similar causes would certainly produce similar results
in the buffalo.

The scantier feed of the mountains, and the great waste of vital energy
called for in procuring it, would hardly produce a larger buffalo than
the plains-fed animal, who acquires an abundance of daily food of the
best quality with but little effort.

We should expect to see the mountain buffalo smaller in body than the
plains animal, with better leg development, and particularly with
stronger hind quarters. The pelvis of the plains buffalo is surprisingly
small and weak for so large an animal. Beyond question, constant
mountain climbing is bound to develop a maximum of useful muscle and
bone and a minimum of useless fat. If the loss of mane sustained by the
African lions who live in bushy localities may be taken as an index, we
should expect the bison of the mountains, especially the "wood buffalo,"
to lose a great deal of his shaggy frontlet and mane on the bushes and
trees which surrounded him. Therefore, we would naturally expect to find
the hair on those parts shorter and in far less perfect condition than
on the bison of the treeless prairies. By reason of the more shaded
condition of his home, and the decided mitigation of the sun's
fierceness, we should also expect to see his entire pelage of a darker
tone. That he would acquire a degree of agility and strength unknown in
his relative of the plain is reasonably certain. In the course of many
centuries the change in his form might become well defined, constant,
and conspicuous; but at present there is apparently not the slightest
ground for considering that the "mountain buffalo" or "wood buffalo" is
entitled to rank even as a variety of _Bison americanus_.

Colonel Dodge has recorded some very interesting information in regard
to the "mountain, or wood buffalo," which deserves to be quoted
entire.[34]

[Note 34: Plains of the Great West, p. 144-147.]

"In various portions of the Rocky Mountains, especially in the region of
the parks, is found an animal which old mountaineers call the 'bison.'
This animal bears about the same relation to a plains buffalo as a
sturdy mountain pony does to an American horse. His body is lighter,
whilst his legs are shorter, but much thicker and stronger, than the
plains animal, thus enabling him to perform feats of climbing and
tumbling almost incredible in such a huge and apparently unwieldy beast.

"These animals are by no means plentiful, and are moreover excessively
shy, inhabiting the deepest, darkest defiles, or the craggy, almost
precipitous, sides of mountains inaccessible to any but the most
practiced mountaineers.

"From the tops of the mountains which rim the parks the rains of ages
have cut deep gorges, which plunge with brusque abruptness, but
nevertheless with great regularity, hundreds or even thousands of feet
to the valley below. Down the bottom of each such gorge a clear, cold
stream of purest water, fertilizing a narrow belt of a few feet of
alluvial, and giving birth and growth, to a dense jungle of spruce,
quaking asp, and other mountain trees. One side of the gorge is
generally a thick forest of pine, while the other side is a meadow-like
park, covered with splendid grass. Such gorges are the favorite haunt of
the mountain buffalo. Early in the morning he enjoys a bountiful
breakfast of the rich nutritious grasses, quenches his thirst with the
finest water, and, retiring just within the line of jungle, where,
himself unseen, he can scan the open, he crouches himself in the long
grass and reposes in comfort and security until appetite calls him to
his dinner late in the evening. Unlike their plains relative, there is
no stupid staring at an intruder. At the first symptom of danger they
disappear like magic in the thicket, and never stop until far removed
from even the apprehension of pursuit. I have many times come upon their
fresh tracks, upon the beds from which they had first sprung in alarm,
but I have never even seen one.

"I have wasted much time and a great deal of wind in vain endeavors to
add one of these animals to my bag. My figure is no longer adapted to
mountain climbing, and the possession of a bison's head of my own
killing is one of my blighted hopes.

"Several of my friends have been more fortunate, but I know of no
sportsman who has bagged more than one.[35]

[Note 35: Foot-note by William Blackmore: "The author is in error here,
as in a point of the Tarryall range of mountains, between Pike's Peak
and the South Park, in the autumn of 1871, two mountain buffaloes were
killed in one afternoon. The skin of the finer was presented to Dr.
Frank Buckland."]

"Old mountaineers and trappers have given me wonderful accounts of the
number of these animals in all the mountain region 'many years ago;' and
I have been informed by them, that their present rarity is due to the
great snow-storm of 1844-'45, of which I have already spoken as
destroying the plains buffalo in the Laramie country.

"One of my friends, a most ardent and pertinacious sportsman, determined
on the possession of a bison's head, and, hiring a guide, plunged into
the mountain wilds which separate the Middle from South Park. After
several days fresh tracks were discovered. Turning their horses loose on
a little gorge park, such as described, they started on foot on the
trail; for all that day they toiled and scrambled with the utmost
caution--now up, now down, through deep and narrow gorges and pine
thickets, over bare and rocky crags, sleeping where night overtook them.
Betimes next morning they pushed on the trail, and about 11 o'clock,
when both were exhausted and well-nigh disheartened, their route was
intercepted by a precipice. Looking over, they descried, on a projecting
ledge several hundred feet below, a herd of about 20 bisons lying down.
The ledge was about 300 feet at widest, by probably 1,000 feet long. Its
inner boundary was the wall of rock on the top of which they stood; its
outer appeared to be a sheer precipice of at least 200 feet. This ledge
was connected with the slope of the mountain by a narrow neck. The wind
being right, the hunters succeeded in reaching this neck unobserved. My
friend selected a magnificent head, that of a fine bull, young but full
grown, and both fired. At the report the bisons all ran to the far end
of the ledge and plunged over.

"Terribly disappointed, the hunters ran to the spot, and found that they
had gone down a declivity, not actually a precipice, but so steep that
the hunters could not follow them.

"At the foot lay a bison. A long, a fatiguing detour brought them to the
spot, and in the animal lying dead before him my friend recognized his
bull--his first and last mountain buffalo. Hone but a true sportsman can
appreciate his feelings.

"The remainder of the herd was never seen after the great plunge, down
which it is doubtful if even a dog could have followed unharmed."

In the issue of Forest and Stream of June 14, 1888, Dr. R. W. Shufeldt,
in an article entitled "The American Buffalo," relates a very
interesting experience with buffaloes which were pronounced to be of the
"mountain" variety, and his observations on the animals are well worth
reproducing here. The animals (eight in number) were encountered on the
northern slope of the Big Horn Mountains, in the autumn of 1877. "We
came upon them during a fearful blizzard of heavy hail, during which our
animals could scarcely retain their feet. In fact, the packer's mule
absolutely lay down on the ground rather than risk being blown down the
mountain side, and my own horse, totally unable to face such a violent
blow and the pelting hail (the stones being as large as big marbles),
positively stood stock-still, facing an old buffalo bull that was not
more than 25 feet in front of me. * * * Strange to say, this fearful
gust did not last more than ten minutes, when it stopped as suddenly as
it had commenced, and I deliberately killed my old buffalo at one shot,
just where he stood, and, separating two other bulls from the rest,
charged them down a rugged ravine. They passed over this and into
another one, but with less precipitous sides and no trees in the way,
and when I was on top of the intervening ridge I noticed that the
largest bull had halted in the bottom. Checking my horse, an excellent
buffalo hunter, I fired down at him without dismounting. The ball merely
barked his shoulder, and to my infinite surprise he turned and charged
me up the hill. * * * Stepping to one side of my horse, with the
charging and infuriated bull not 10 feet to my front, I fired upon him,
and the heavy ball took him square in the chest, bringing him to his
knees, with a gush of scarlet blood from his mouth and nostrils. * * *

"Upon examining the specimen, I found it to be an old bull, apparently
smaller and very much blacker than the ones I had seen killed on the
plains only a day or so before. Then I examined the first one I had
shot, as well as others which were killed by the packer from the same
bunch, and I came to the conclusion that they were typical
representatives of the variety known as the 'mountain buffalo,' a form
much more active in movement, of slighter limbs, blacker, and far more
dangerous to attack. My opinion in the premises remains unaltered
to-day. In all this I may be mistaken, but it was also the opinion held
by the old buffalo hunter who accompanied me, and who at once remarked
when he saw them that they were 'mountain buffalo,' and not the plains
variety. * * *

"These specimens were not actually measured by me in either case, and
their being considered smaller only rested upon my judging them by my
eye. But they were of a softer pelage, black, lighter in limb, and when
discovered were in the timber, on the side of the Big Horn Mountains."

The band of bison in the Yellowstone Park must, of necessity, be of the
so-called "wood" or "mountain" variety, and if by any chance one of its
members ever dies of old age, it is to be hoped its skin may be
carefully preserved and sent to the National Museum to throw some
further light on this question.

11. _The shedding of the winter pelage._--In personal appearance the
buffalo is subject to striking, and even painful, variations, and the
estimate an observer forms of him is very apt to depend upon the time of
the year at which the observation is made. Toward the end of the winter
the whole coat has become faded and bleached by the action of the sun,
wind, snow, and rain, until the freshness of its late autumn colors has
totally disappeared. The bison takes on a seedy, weathered, and rusty
look. But this is not a circumstance to what happens to him a little
later. Promptly with the coming of the spring, if not even in the last
week of February, the buffalo begins the shedding of his winter coat. It
is a long and difficult task, and with commendable energy he sets about
it at the earliest possible moment. It lasts him more than half the
year, and is attended with many positive discomforts.

The process of shedding is accomplished in two ways: by the new hair
growing into and forcing off the old, and by the old hair falling off in
great patches, leaving the skin bare. On the heavily-haired
portions--the head, neck, fore quarters, and hump--the old hair stops
growing, dies, and the new hair immediately starts through the skin and
forces it off. The new hair grows so rapidly, and at the same time so
densely, that it forces itself into the old, becomes hopelessly
entangled with it, and in time actually lifts the old hair clear of the
skin. On the head the new hair is dark brown or black, but on the neck,
fore quarters, and hump it has at first, and indeed until it is 2 inches
in length, a peculiar gray or drab color, mixed with brown, totally
different from its final and natural color. The new hair starts first on
the head, but the actual shedding of the old hair is to be seen first
along the lower parts of the neck and between the fore legs. The
heavily-haired parts are never bare, but, on the contrary, the amount of
hair upon them is about the same all the year round. The old and the new
hair cling together with provoking tenacity long after the old coat
should fall, and on several of the bulls we killed in October there were
patches of it still sticking tightly to the shoulders, from which it
had to be forcibly plucked away. Under all such patches the new hair was
of a different color from that around them.

The other process of shedding takes place on the body and hind quarters,
from which the old hair loosens and drops off in great woolly flakes a
foot square, more or less. The shedding takes place very unevenly, the
old hair remaining much longer in some places than in others. During
April, May, and June the body and hind quarters present a most ludicrous
and even pitiful spectacle. The island-like patches of persistent old
hair alternating with patches of bare brown skin are adorned (?) by
great ragged streamers of loose hair, which flutter in the wind like
signals of distress. Whoever sees a bison at this period is filled with
a desire to assist nature by plucking off the flying streamers of old
hair; but the bison never permits anything of the kind, however good
one's intentions may be. All efforts to dislodge the old hair are
resisted to the last extremity, and the buffalo generally acts as if the
intention were to deprive him of his skin itself. By the end of June, if
not before, the body and hind quarters are free from the old hair, and
as bare as the hide of a hippopotamus. The naked skin has a shiny brown
appearance, and of course the external anatomy of the animal is very
distinctly revealed. But for the long hair on the fore quarters, neck,
and head the bison would lose all his dignity of appearance with his
hair. As it is, the handsome black head, which is black with new hair as
early as the first of May, redeems the animal from utter homeliness.

After the shedding of the body hair, the naked skin of the buffalo is
burned by the sun and bitten by flies until he is compelled to seek a
pool of water, or even a bed of soft mud, in which to roll and make
himself comfortable. He wallows, not so much because he is so fond of
either water or mud, but in self-defense; and when he emerges from his
wallow, plastered with mud from head to tail, his degradation is
complete. He is then simply not fit to be seen, even by his best
friends.

By the first of October, a complete and wonderful transformation has
taken place. The buffalo stands forth clothed in a complete new suit of
hair, fine, clean, sleek, and bright in color, not a speck of dirt nor a
lock awry anywhere. To be sure, it is as yet a trifle short on the body,
where it is not over an inch in length, and hardly that; but it is
growing rapidly and getting ready for winter.

From the 20th of November to the 20th of December the pelage is at its
very finest. By the former date it has attained its full growth, its
colors are at their brightest, and nothing has been lost either by the
elements or by accidental causes. To him who sees an adult bull at this
period, or near it, the grandeur of the animal is irresistibly felt.
After seeing buffaloes of all ages in the spring and summer months the
contrast afforded by those seen in October, November, and December was
most striking and impressive. In the later period, as different
individuals were wounded and brought to bay at close quarters, their
hair was so clean and well-kept, that more than once I was led to
exclaim: "He looks as if he had just been combed."

It must be remarked, however, that the long hair of the head and fore
quarters is disposed in locks or tufts, and to comb it in reality would
utterly destroy its natural and characteristic appearance.

Inasmuch as the pelage of the domesticated bison, the only
representatives of the species which will be found alive ten years
hence, will in all likelihood develop differently from that of the wild
animal, it may some time in the future be of interest to know the
length, by careful measurement, of the hair found on carefully-selected
typical wild specimens. To this end the following measurements are
given. It must be borne in mind that these specimens were not chosen
because their pelage was particularly luxuriant, but rather because they
are fine average specimens.

The hair of the adult bull is by no means as long as I have seen on a
bison, although perhaps not many have greatly surpassed it. It is with
the lower animals as with man--the length of the hairy covering is an
individual character only. I have in my possession a tuft of hair, from
the frontlet of a rather small bull bison, which measures 221/2 inches
in length. The beard on the specimen from which this came was
correspondingly long, and the entire pelage was of wonderful length and
density.

LENGTH OF THE HAIR OF BISON AMERICANUS.

[Measurements, in inches, of the pelage of the specimens composing the
group in the National Museum.]

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                    |Old    |Old     |Spike   |Young   |Yearling|Young |
|                    |bull,  |cow,    |bull,   |cow,    |calf,   |calf, |
|                    |killed |killed  |killed  |killed  |killed  |four  |
|                    |Dec. 6.|Nov. 18.|Oct. 14.|Oct. 14.|Oct. 31.|months|
|Length of:          |       |        |        |        |        |old.  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|hair on the shoulder|       |        |        |        |        |      |
|(over scapula)      |   33/4  |   43/4   |   31/2   |   31/4   |   3    |  11/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|hair on top of hump |   61/2  |   7    |   51/4   |   51/2   |   41/2   |  2   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|hair on the middle  |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|of the side         |   2   |   11/2   |   21/2   |   11/2   |   21/4   |  11/4  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|hair on the         |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|hind quarter        |   13/4  |   11/4   |    3/4   |    3/4   |   2    |  1   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|hair on the         |       |        |        |        |        |      |
|forehead            |  16   |   81/2   |   61/2   |   5    |   31/2   |   1/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|the chin beard      |  111/2  |   91/2   |   63/4   |   5    |   5    |  0   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|the breast tuft     |   8   |   81/2   |   8    |   6    |   5    |  3   |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|tuft on fore leg    |  101/2  |   8    |   8    |   41/2   |   3    |  11/2  |
+--------------------+-------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------+
|the tail tuft       |  19   |  15    |  15    |  13    |   71/2   |  41/2  |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

_Albinism._--Cases of albinism in the buffalo were of extremely rare
occurrence. I have met many old buffalo hunters, who had killed
thousands and seen scores of thousands of buffaloes, yet never had seen
a white one. From all accounts it appears that not over ten or eleven
white buffaloes, or white buffalo skins, were ever seen by white men.
Pied individuals were occasionally obtained, but even they were rare.
Albino buffaloes were always so highly prized that not a single one, so
far as I can learn, ever had the good fortune to attain adult size,
their appearance being so striking, in contrast with the other members
of the herd, as to draw upon them an unusual number of enemies, and
cause their speedy destruction.

At the New Orleans Exposition, in 1884-'85, the Territory of Dakota
exhibited, amongst other Western quadrupeds, the mounted skin of a
two-year-old buffalo which might fairly be called an albino. Although
not really white, it was of a uniform dirty cream-color, and showed not
a trace of the bison's normal color on any part of its body.

Lieut. Col. S. C. Kellogg, U. S. Army, has on deposit in the National
Museum a tanned skin which is said to have come from a buffalo. It is
from an animal about one year old, and the hair upon it, which is short,
very curly or wavy, and rather coarse, is pure white. In length and
texture the hair does not in any one respect resemble the hair of a
yearling buffalo save in one particular,--along the median line of the
neck and hump there is a rather long, thin mane of hair, which has the
peculiar woolly appearance of genuine buffalo hair on those parts. On
the shoulder portions of the skin the hair is as short as on the hind
quarters. I am inclined to believe this rather remarkable specimen came
from a wild half-breed calf, the result of a cross between a white
domestic cow and a buffalo bull. At one time it was by no means uncommon
for small bunches of domestic cattle to enter herds of buffalo and
remain there permanently.

I have been informed that the late General Marcy possessed a white
buffalo skin. If it is still in existence, and is really _white_, it is
to be hoped that so great a rarity may find a permanent abiding place in
some museum where the remains of _Bison americanus_ are properly
appreciated.




V. THE HABITS OF THE BUFFALO.


The history of the buffalo's daily life and habits should begin with the
"running season." This period occupied the months of August and
September, and was characterized by a degree of excitement and activity
throughout the entire herd quite foreign to the ease-loving and even
slothful nature which was so noticeable a feature of the bison's
character at all other times.

The mating season occurred when the herd was on its summer range. The
spring calves were from two to four months old. Through continued
feasting on the new crop of buffalo-grass and bunch-grass--the most
nutritious in the world, perhaps--every buffalo in the herd had grown
round-sided, fat, and vigorous. The faded and weather-beaten suit of
winter hair had by that time fallen off and given place to the new coat
of dark gray and black, and, excepting for the shortness of his hair,
the buffalo was in prime condition.

During the "running season," as it was called by the plainsmen, the
whole nature of the herd was completely changed. Instead of being broken
up into countless small groups and dispersed over a vast extent of
territory, the herd came together in a dense and confused mass of many
thousand individuals, so closely congregated as to actually blacken the
face of the landscape. As if by a general and irresistible impulse,
every straggler would be drawn to the common center, and for miles on
every side of the great herd the country would be found entirely
deserted.

At this time the herd itself became a seething mass of activity and
excitement. As usual under such conditions, the bulls were half the time
chasing the cows, and fighting each other during the other half. These
actual combats, which were always of short duration and over in a few
seconds after the actual collision took place, were preceded by the
usual threatening demonstrations, in which the bull lowers his head
until his nose almost touches the ground, roars like a fog-horn until
the earth seems to fairly tremble with the vibration, glares madly upon
his adversary with half-white eyeballs, and with his forefeet paws up
the dry earth and throws it upward in a great cloud of dust high above
his back. At such times the mingled roaring--it can not truthfully be
described as lowing or bellowing--of a number of huge bulls unite and
form a great volume of sound like distant thunder, which has often been
heard at a distance of from 1 to 3 miles. I have even been assured by
old plainsmen that under favorable atmospheric conditions such sounds
have been heard five miles.

Notwithstanding the extreme frequency of combats between the bulls
during this season, their results were nearly always harmless, thanks to
the thickness of the hair and hide on the head and shoulders, and the
strength of the neck.

Under no conditions was there ever any such thing as the pairing off or
mating of male and female buffaloes for any length of time. In the
entire process of reproduction the bison's habits were similar to those
of domestic cattle. For years the opinion was held by many, in some
cases based on misinterpreted observations, that in the herd the
identity of each family was partially preserved, and that each old bull
maintained an individual harem and group of progeny of his own. The
observations of Colonel Dodge completely disprove this very interesting
theory; for at best it was only a picturesque fancy, ascribing to the
bison a degree of intelligence which he never possessed.

At the close of the breeding season the herd quickly settles down to its
normal condition. The mass gradually resolves itself into the numerous
bands or herdlets of from twenty to a hundred individuals, so
characteristic of bison on their feeding grounds, and these gradually
scatter in search of the best grass until the herd covers many square
miles of country.

In his search for grass the buffalo displayed but little intelligence or
power of original thought. Instead of closely following the divides
between water courses where the soil was best and grass most abundant,
he would not hesitate to wander away from good feeding-grounds into
barren "bad lands," covered with sage-brush, where the grass was very
thin and very poor. In such broken country as Montana, Wyoming, and
southwestern Dakota, the herds, on reaching the best grazing grounds on
the divides, would graze there day after day until increasing thirst
compelled them to seek for water. Then, actuated by a common impulse,
the search for a water-hole was begun in a business-like way. The leader
of a herd, or "bunch," which post was usually filled by an old cow,
would start off down the nearest "draw," or stream-heading, and all the
rest would fall into line and follow her. From the moment this start was
made there was no more feeding, save as a mouthful of grass could be
snatched now and then without turning aside. In single file, in a line
sometimes half a mile long and containing between one and two hundred
buffaloes, the procession slowly marched down the coulée, close
alongside the gully as soon as the water-course began to cut a pathway
for itself. When the gully curved to right or left the leader would
cross its bed and keep straight on until the narrow ditch completed its
wayward curve and came back to the middle of the coulée. The trail of a
herd in search of water is usually as good a piece of engineering as
could be executed by the best railway surveyor, and is governed by
precisely the same principles. It always follows the level of the
valley, swerves around the high points, and crosses the stream
repeatedly in order to avoid climbing up from the level. The same trail
is used again and again by different herds until the narrow path, not
over a foot in width, is gradually cut straight down into the soil to a
depth of several inches, as if it had been done by a 12-inch
grooving-plane. By the time the trail has been worn down to a depth of 6
or 7 inches, without having its width increased in the least, it is no
longer a pleasant path to walk in, being too much like a narrow ditch.
Then the buffaloes abandon it and strike out a new one alongside, which
is used until it also is worn down and abandoned.

To day the old buffalo trails are conspicuous among the very few classes
of objects which remain as a reminder of a vanished race. The herds of
cattle now follow them in single file just as the buffaloes did a few
years ago, as they search for water in the same way. In some parts of
the West, in certain situations, old buffalo trails exist which the wild
herds wore down to a depth of 2 feet or more.

Mile after mile marched the herd, straight down-stream, bound for the
upper water-hole. As the hot summer drew on, the pools would dry up one
by one, those nearest the source being the first to disappear. Toward
the latter part of summer, the journey for water was often a long one.
Hole after hole would be passed without finding a drop of water. At last
a hole of mud would be found, below that a hole with a little muddy
water, and a mile farther on the leader would arrive at a shallow pool
under the edge of a "cut bank," a white, snow-like deposit of alkali on
the sand encircling its margin, and incrusting the blades of grass and
rushed that grew up from the bottom. The damp earth around the pool was
cut up by a thousand hoof-prints, and the water was warm, strongly
impregnated with alkali, and yellow with animal impurities, but it was
_water_. The nauseous mixture was quickly surrounded by a throng of
thirsty, heated, and eager buffaloes of all ages, to which the oldest
and strongest asserted claims of priority. There was much crowding and
some fighting, but eventually all were satisfied. After such a long
journey to water, a herd would usually remain by it for some hours,
lying down, resting, and drinking at intervals until completely
satisfied.

Having drunk its fill, the herd would never march directly back to the
choice feeding grounds it had just left, but instead would leisurely
stroll off at a right angle from the course it came, cropping for awhile
the rich bunch grasses of the bottom-lands, and then wander across the
hills in an almost aimless search for fresh fields and pastures new.
When buffaloes remained long in a certain locality it was a common thing
for them to visit the same watering-place a number of times, at
intervals of greater or less duration, according to circumstances.

When undisturbed on his chosen range, the bison used to be fond of lying
down for an hour or two in the middle of the day, particularly when fine
weather and good grass combined to encourage him in luxurious habits. I
once discovered with the field glass a small herd of buffaloes lying
down at midday on the slope of a high ridge, and having ridden hard for
several hours we seized the opportunity to unsaddle and give our horses
an hour's rest before making the attack. While we were so doing, the
herd got up, shifted its position to the opposite side of the ridge, and
again laid down, every buffalo with his nose pointing to windward.

Old hunters declare that in the days of their abundance, when feeding on
their ranges in fancied security, the younger animals were as playful as
well-fed domestic calves. It was a common thing to see them cavort and
frisk around with about as much grace as young elephants, prancing and
running to and fro with tails held high in air "like scorpions."

Buffaloes are very fond of rolling in dry dirt or even in mud, and this
habit is quite strong in captive animals. Not only is it indulged in
during the shedding season, but all through the fall and winter. The two
live buffaloes in the National Museum are so much given to rolling, even
in rainy weather, that it is necessary to card them every few days to
keep them presentable.

Bulls are much more given to rolling than the cows, especially after
they have reached maturity. They stretch out at full length, rub their
heads violently to and fro on the ground, in which the horn serves as
the chief point of contact and slides over the ground like a
sled-runner. After thoroughly scratching one side on mother earth they
roll over and treat the other in like manner. Notwithstanding his sharp
and lofty hump, a buffalo bull can roll completely over with as much
ease as any horse.

The vast amount of rolling and side-scratching on the earth indulged in
by bull buffaloes is shown in the worn condition of the horns of every
old specimen. Often a thickness of half an inch is gone from the upper
half of each horn on its outside curve, at which point the horn is worn
quite flat. This is well illustrated in the horns shown in the
accompanying plate, fig. 6.

[Illustration: DEVELOPMENT OF THE HORNS OF THE AMERICAN BISON.

1. The Calf. 2. The Yearling. 3. Spike Bull, 2 years old.
4. Spike Bull, 3 years old. 5. Bull, 4 years old.
6. Bull, 11 years old. 7. Old "stub-horn" Bull, 20 years old.]

Mr. Catlin[36] affords some very interesting and valuable information in
regard to the bison's propensity for wollowing in mad, and also the
origin of the "fairy circles," which have caused so much speculation
amongst travelers:

[Note 36: North American Indians, vol. I, p. 249, 250.]

"In the heat of summer, these huge animals, which no doubt suffer very
much with the great profusion of their long and shaggy hair, or fur,
often graze on the low grounds of the prairies, where there is a little
stagnant water lying amongst the grass, and the ground underneath being
saturated with it, is soft, into which the enormous bull, lowered down
upon one knee, will plunge his horns, and at last his head, driving up
the earth, and soon making an excavation in the ground into which the
water filters from amongst the grass, forming for him in a few moments a
cool and comfortable bath, into which he plunges like a hog in his mire.

"In this delectable laver he throws himself flat upon his side, and
forcing himself violently around, with his horns and his huge hump on
his shoulders presented to the sides, he ploughs up the ground by his
rotary motion, sinking himself deeper and deeper in the ground,
continually enlarging his pool, in which he at length becomes nearly
immersed, and the water and mud about him mixed into a complete mortar,
which changes his color and drips in streams from every part of him as
he rises up upon his feet, a hideous monster of mud and ugliness, too
frightful and too eccentric to be described!

"It is generally the leader of the herd that takes upon him to make this
excavation, and if not (but another one opens the ground), the leader
(who is conqueror) marches forward, and driving the other from it
plunges himself into it; and, having cooled his sides and changed his
color to a walking mass of mud and mortar, he stands in the pool until
inclination induces him to step out and give place to the next in
command who stands ready, and another, and another, who advance forward
in their turns to enjoy the luxury of the wallow, until the whole band
(sometimes a hundred or more) will pass through it in turn,[37] each one
throwing his body around in a similar manner and each one adding a
little to the dimensions of the pool, while he carries away in his hair
an equal share of the clay, which dries to a gray or whitish color and
gradually falls off. By this operation, which is done perhaps in the
space of half an hour, a circular excavation of fifteen or twenty feet
in diameter and two feet in depth is completed and left for the water to
run into, which soon fills it to the level of the ground.

[Note 37: In the District of Columbia work-house we have a counterpart
of this in the public bath-tub, wherein forty prisoners were seen by a
_Star_ reporter to bathe one after another in the same water!]

"To these sinks, the waters lying on the surface of the prairies are
continually draining and in them lodging their vegetable deposits, which
after a lapse of years fill them up to the surface with a rich soil,
which throws up an unusual growth of grass and herbage, forming
conspicuous circles, which arrest the eye of the traveler and are
calculated to excite his surprise for ages to come."

During the latter part of the last century, when the bison inhabited
Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the salt springs of those States were
resorted to by thousands of those animals, who drank of the saline
waters and licked the impregnated earth. Mr. Thomas Ashe[38] affords us
a most interesting account, from the testimony of an eye witness, of the
behavior of a bison at a salt spring. The description refers to a
locality in western Pennsylvania, where "an old man, one of the first
settlers of this country, built his log house on the immediate borders
of a salt spring. He informed me that for the first several seasons the
buffaloes paid him their visits with the utmost regularity; they
traveled in single files, always following each other at equal
distances, forming droves, on their arrival, of about 300 each.

[Note 38: Travels in America in 1806. London, 1808.]

"The first and second years, so unacquainted were these poor brutes with
the use of this man's house or with his nature, that in a few hours they
_rubbed_ the house completely down, taking delight in turning the logs
off with their horns, while he had some difficulty to escape from being
trampled under their feet or crushed to death in his own ruins. At that
period he supposed there could not have been less than 2,000 in the
neighborhood of the spring. They sought for no manner of food, but only
bathed and drank three or four times a day and rolled in the earth, or
reposed with their flanks distended in the adjacent shades; and on the
fifth and sixth days separated into distinct droves, bathed, drank, and
departed in single files, according to the exact order of their arrival.
They all rolled successively in the same hole, and each thus carried
away a coat of mud to preserve the moisture on their skin and which,
when hardened and baked in the sun, would resist the stings of millions
of insects that otherwise would persecute these peaceful travelers to
madness or even death."

It was a fixed habit with the great buffalo herds to move southward from
200 to 400 miles at the approach of winter. Sometimes this movement was
accomplished quietly and without any excitement, but at other times it
was done with a rush, in which considerable distances would be gone over
on the double quick. The advance of a herd was often very much like that
of a big army, in a straggling line, from four to ten animals abreast.
Sometimes the herd moved forward in a dense mass, and in consequence
often came to grief in quicksands, alkali bogs, muddy crossings, and on
treacherous ice. In such places thousands of buffaloes lost their lives,
through those in the lead being forced into danger by pressure of the
mass coming behind. In this manner, in the summer of 1867, over two
thousand buffaloes, out of a herd of about four thousand, lost their
lives in the quicksands of the Platte River, near Plum Creek, while
attempting to cross. One winter, a herd of nearly a hundred buffaloes
attempted to cross a lake called Lac-qui-parle, in Minnesota, upon the
ice, which gave way, and drowned the entire herd. During the days of the
buffalo it was a common thing for voyagers on the Missouri River to see
buffaloes hopelessly mired in the quicksands or mud along the shore,
either dead or dying, and to find their dead bodies floating down the
river, or lodged on the upper ends of the islands and sand-bars.

Such accidents as these: it may be repeated, were due to the great
number of animals and the momentum of the moving mass. The forced
marches of the great herds were like the flight of a routed army, in
which helpless individuals were thrust into mortal peril by the
irresistible force of the mass coming behind, which rushes blindly on
after their leaders. In this way it was possible to decoy a herd toward
a precipice and cause it to plunge over en masse, the leaders being
thrust over by their followers, and all the rest following of their own
free will, like the sheep who cheerfully leaped, one after another,
through a hole in the side of a high bridge because their bell-wether
did so.

But it is not to be understood that the movement of a great herd,
because it was made on a run, necessarily partook of the nature of a
stampede in which a herd sweeps forward in a body. The most graphic
account that I ever obtained of facts bearing on this point was
furnished by Mr. James McNaney, drawn from his experience on the
northern buffalo range in 1882. His party reached the range (on Beaver
Creek, about 100 miles south of Glendive) about the middle of November,
and found buffaloes already there; in fact they had begun to arrive from
the north as early as the middle of October. About the first of December
an immense herd arrived from the north. It reached their vicinity one
night, about 10 o'clock, in a mass that seemed to spread everywhere. As
the hunters sat in their tents, loading cartridges and cleaning their
rifles, a low rumble was heard, which gradually increased to "a
thundering noise," and some one exclaimed, "There! that's a big herd of
buffalo coming in!" All ran out immediately, and hallooed and discharged
rifles to keep the buffaloes from running over their tents. Fortunately,
the horses were picketed some distance away in a grassy coulée, which
the buffaloes did not enter. The herd came at a jog trot, and moved
quite rapidly. "In the morning the whole country was black with
buffalo." It was estimated that 10,000 head were in sight. One immense
detachment went down on to a "flat" and laid down. There it remained
quietly, enjoying a long rest, for about ten days. It gradually broke up
into small bands, which strolled off in various directions looking for
food, and which the hunters quietly attacked.

A still more striking event occurred about Christmas time at the same
place. For a few days the neighborhood of McNaney's camp had been
entirely deserted by buffaloes, not even one remaining. But one morning
about daybreak a great herd which was traveling south began to pass
their camp. A long line of moving forms was seen advancing rapidly from
the northwest, coming in the direction of the hunters' camp. It
disappeared in the creek valley for a few moments, and presently the
leaders suddenly came in sight again at the top of "a rise" a few
hundred yards away, and came down the intervening slope at full speed,
within 50 yards of the two tents. After them came a living stream of
followers, all going at a gallop, described by the observer as "a long
lope," from four to ten buffaloes abreast. Sometimes there would be a
break in the column of a minute's duration, then more buffaloes would
appear at the brow of the hill, and the column went rushing by as
before. The calves ran with their mothers, and the young stock got over
the ground with much less exertion than the older animals. For about
four hours, or until past 11 o'clock, did this column of buffaloes
gallop past the camp over a course no wider than a village street. Three
miles away toward the south the long dark line of bobbing humps and
hind quarters wound to the right between two hills and disappeared. True
to their instincts, the hunters promptly brought out their rifles, and
began to fire at the buffaloes as they ran. A furious fusilade was kept
up from the very doors of the tents, and from first to last over fifty
buffaloes were killed. Some fell headlong the instant they were hit, but
the greater number ran on until their mortal wounds compelled them to
halt, draw off a little way to one side, and finally fall in their death
struggles.

Mr. McNaney stated that the hunters estimated the number of buffaloes
_on that portion_ of the range that winter (1881-'82) at 100,000.

It is probable, and in fact reasonably certain, that such forced-march
migrations as the above were due to snow-covered pastures and a scarcity
of food on the more northern ranges. Having learned that a journey south
will bring him to regions of less snow and more grass, it is but natural
that so lusty a traveler should migrate. The herds or bands which
started south in the fall months traveled more leisurely, with frequent
halts to graze on rich pastures. The advance was on a very different
plan, taking place in straggling lines and small groups dispersed over
quite a scope of country.

Unless closely pursued, the buffalo never chose to make a journey of
several miles through hilly country on a continuous run. Even when
fleeing from the attack of a hunter, I have often had occasion to notice
that, if the hunter was a mile behind, the buffalo would always walk
when going uphill; but as soon as the crest was gained he would begin to
run, and go down the slope either at a gallop or a swift trot. In former
times, when the buffalo's world was wide, when retreating from an attack
he always ran against the wind, to avoid running upon a new danger,
which showed that he depended more upon his sense of smell than his
eye-sight. During the last years of his existence, however, this habit
almost totally disappeared, and the harried survivors learned to run for
the regions which offered the greatest safety. But even to-day, if a
Texas hunter should go into the Staked Plains, and descry in the
distance a body of animals running against the wind, he would, without a
moment's hesitation, pronounce them buffaloes, and the chances are that
he would be right.

In winter the buffalo used to face the storms, instead of turning tail
and "drifting" before them helplessly, as domestic cattle do. But at the
same time, when beset by a blizzard, he would wisely seek shelter from
it in some narrow and deep valley or system of ravines. There the herd
would lie down and wait patiently for the storm to cease. After a heavy
fall of snow, the place to find the buffalo was in the flats and creek
bottoms, where the tall, rank bunch-grasses showed their tops above the
snow, and afforded the best and almost the only food obtainable.

When the snow-fall was unusually heavy, and lay for a long time on the
ground, the buffalo was forced to fast for days together, and sometimes
even weeks. If a warm day came, and thawed the upper surface of the snow
sufficiently for succeeding cold to freeze it into a crust, the outlook
for the bison began to be serious. A man can travel over a crust through
which the hoofs of a ponderous bison cut like chisels and leave him
floundering belly-deep. It was at such times that the Indians hunted him
on snow-shoes, and drove their spears into his vitals as he wallowed
helplessly in the drifts. Then the wolves grew fat upon the victims
which they, also, slaughtered almost without effort.

Although buffaloes did not often actually perish from hunger and cold
during the severest winters (save in a few very exceptional cases), they
often came out in very poor condition. The old bulls always suffered
more severely than the rest, and at the end of winter were frequently in
miserable plight.

Unlike most other terrestrial quadrupeds of America, so long as he could
roam at will the buffalo had settled migratory habits.[39] While the elk
and black-tail deer change their altitude twice a year, in conformity
with the approach and disappearance of winter, the buffalo makes a
radical change of latitude. This was most noticeable in the great
western pasture region, where the herds were most numerous and their
movements most easily observed.

[Note 39: On page 248 of his "North American Indians," vol. I, Mr.
Catlin declares pointedly that "these animals are, truly speaking,
gregarious, but not migratory; they graze in immense and almost
incredible numbers at times, and roam about and over vast tracts of
country from east to west and from west to east as often as from north
to south, which has often been supposed they naturally and habitually
did to accommodate themselves to the temperature of the climate in the
different latitudes." Had Mr. Catlin resided continuously in any one
locality on the great buffalo range, he would have found that the
buffalo had decided migratory habits. The abundance of proof on this
point renders it unnecessary to eater fully into the details of the
subject.]

At the approach of winter the whole great system of herds which ranged
from the Peace River to the Indian Territory moved south a few hundred
miles, and wintered under more favorable circumstances than each band
would have experienced at its farthest north. Thus it happened that
nearly the whole of the great range south of the Saskatchewan was
occupied by buffaloes even in winter.

The movement north began with the return of mild weather in the early
spring. Undoubtedly this northward migration was to escape the heat of
their southern winter range rather than to find better pasture; for as a
grazing country for cattle all the year round, Texas is hardly
surpassed, except where it is overstocked. It was with the buffaloes a
matter of choice rather than necessity which sent them on their annual
pilgrimage northward.

Col. R. I. Dodge, who has made many valuable observations on the
migratory habits of the southern buffaloes, has recorded the
following:[40]

"Early in spring, as soon as the dry and apparently desert prairie had
begun to change its coat of dingy brown to one of palest green, the
horizon would begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of
two or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thicker and thicker and in
larger groups they come, until by the time the grass is well up the
whole vast landscape appears a mass of buffalo, some individuals
feeding, others standing, others lying down, but the herd moving slowly,
moving constantly to the northward. * * * Some years, as in 1871, the
buffalo appeared to move northward in one immense column oftentimes from
20 to 50 miles in width, and of unknown depth from front to rear. Other
years the northward journey was made in several parallel columns, moving
at the same rate, and with their numerous flankers covering a width of a
hundred or more miles.

"The line of march of this great spring migration was not always the
same, though it was confined within certain limits. I am informed by old
frontiersmen that it has not within twenty-five years crossed the
Arkansas River east of Great Bend nor west of Big Sand Creek. The most
favored routes crossed the Arkansas at the mouth of Walnut Creek, Pawnee
Fork, Mulberry Creek, the Cimarron Crossing, and Big Sand Creek.

"As the great herd proceeds northward it is constantly depleted, numbers
wandering off to the right and left, until finally it is scattered in
small herds far and wide over the vast feeding grounds, where they pass
the summer.

"When the food in one locality fails they go to another, and towards
fall, when the grass of the high prairie becomes parched by the heat and
drought, they gradually work their way back to the south, concentrating
on the rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence, the same
instinct acting on all, they are ready to start together on the
northward march as soon as spring starts the grass."

[Note 40: Our Wild Indians, p. 283, _et seq._]

So long as the bison held undisputed possession of the great plains his
migratory habits were as above--regular, general, and on a scale that
was truly grand. The herds that wintered in Texas, the Indian Territory,
and New Mexico probably spent their summers in Nebraska, southwestern
Dakota, and Wyoming. The winter herds of northern Colorado, Wyoming,
Nebraska, and southern Dakota went to northern Dakota and Montana, while
the great Montana herds spent the summer on the Grand Coteau des
Prairies lying between the Saskatchewan and the Missouri. The two great
annual expeditions of the Red River half-breeds, which always took place
in summer, went in two directions from Winnipeg and Pembina--one, the
White Horse Plain division, going westward along the Qu'Appelle to the
Saskatchewan country, and the other, the Red River division, southwest
into Dakota. In 1840 the site of the present city of Jamestown, Dakota,
was the northeastern limit of the herds that summered in Dakota, and the
country lying between that point and the Missouri was for years the
favorite hunting ground of the Red River division.

The herds which wintered on the Montana ranges always went north in the
early spring, usually in March, so that during the time the hunters were
hauling in the hides taken on the winter hunt the ranges were entirely
deserted. It is equally certain, however, that a few small bauds
remained in certain portions of Montana throughout the summer. But the
main body crossed the international boundary, and spent the summer on
the plains of the Saskatchewan, where they were hunted by the
half-breeds from the Red River settlements and the Indians of the
plains. It is my belief that in this movement nearly all the buffaloes
of Montana and Dakota participated, and that the herds which spent the
summer in Dakota, where they were annually hunted by the Red River
half-breeds, came up from Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska.

While most of the calves were born on the summer ranges, many were
brought forth en route. It was the habit of the cows to retire to a
secluded spot, if possible a ravine well screened from observation,
bring forth their young, and nourish and defend them until they were
strong enough to join the herd. Calves were born all the time from March
to July, and sometimes even as late as August. On the summer ranges it
was the habit of the cows to leave the bulls at calving time, and thus
it often happened that small herds were often seen composed of bulls
only. Usually the cow produced but one calf, but twins were not
uncommon. Of course many calves were brought forth in the herd, but the
favorite habit of the cow was as stated. As soon as the young calves
were brought into the herd, which for prudential reasons occurred at the
earliest possible moment, the bulls assumed the duty of protecting them
from the wolves which at all times congregated in the vicinity of a
herd, watching for an opportunity to seize a calf or a wounded buffalo
which might be left behind. A calf always follows its mother until its
successor is appointed and installed, unless separated from her by force
of circumstances. They suck until they are nine months old, or even
older, and Mr. McNaney once saw a lusty calf suck its mother (in
January) on the Montana range several hours after she had been killed
for her skin.

When a buffalo is wounded it leaves the herd immediately and goes off as
far from the line of pursuit as it can get, to escape the rabble of
hunters, who are sure to follow the main body. If any deep ravines are
at hand the wounded animal limps away to the bottom of the deepest and
most secluded one, and gradually works his way up to its very head,
where he finds himself in a perfect cul-de-sac, barely wide enough to
admit him. Here he is so completely hidden by the high walls and
numerous bends that his pursuer must needs come within a few feet of his
horns before his huge bulk is visible. I have more than once been
astonished at the real impregnability of the retreats selected by
wounded bison. In following up wounded bulls in ravine headings it
always became too dangerous to make the last stage of the pursuit on
horseback, for fear of being caught in a passage so narrow as to insure
a fatal accident to man or horse in case of a sudden discovery of the
quarry. I have seen wounded bison shelter in situations where a single
bull could easily defend himself from a whole pack of wolves, being
completely walled in on both sides and the rear, and leaving his foes no
point of attack save his head and horns.

Bison which were nursing serious wounds most often have gone many days
at a time without either food or water, and in this connection it may be
mentioned that the recuperative power of a bison is really wonderful.
Judging from the number of old leg wounds, fully healed, which I have
found in freshly killed bisons, one may be tempted to believe that a
bison never died of a broken leg. One large bull which I skeletonized
had had his humerus shot squarely in two, but it had united again more
firmly than ever. Another large bull had the head of his left femur and
the hip socket shattered completely to pieces by a big ball, but he had
entirely recovered from it, and was as lusty a runner as any bull we
chased. We found that while a broken leg was a misfortune to a buffalo,
it always took something more serious than that to stop him.




VI. THE FOOD OF THE BISON.


It is obviously impossible to enumerate all the grasses which served the
bison as food on his native heath without presenting a complete list of
all the plants of that order found in a given region; but it is at least
desirable to know which of the grasses of the great pasture region were
his favorite and most common food. It was the nutritious character and
marvelous abundance of his food supply which enabled the bison to exist
in such absolutely countless numbers as characterized his occupancy of
the great plains. The following list comprises the grasses which were
the bison's principal food, named in the order of their importance:

_Bouteloua oligostachya_ (buffalo, grama, or mesquite grass).--This
remarkable grass formed the _pièce de résistance_ of the bison's bill
of fare in the days when he flourished, and it now comes to us daily in
the form of beef produced of primest quality and in greatest quantity on
what was until recently the great buffalo range. This grass is the most
abundant and widely distributed species to be found in the great pasture
region between the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and the
nineteenth degree of west longitude. It is the principal grass of the
plains from Texas to the British Possessions, and even in the latter
territory it is quite conspicuous. To any one but a botanist its first
acquaintance means a surprise. Its name and fame lead the unacquainted
to expect a grass which is tall, rank, and full of "fodder," like the
"blue joint" (_Andropogon provincialis_). The grama grass is very short,
the leaves being usually not more than 2 or 3 inches in length and
crowded together at the base of the stems. The flower stalk is about a
foot in height, but on grazed lands are eaten off and but seldom seen.
The leaves are narrow and inclined to curl, and lie close to the ground.
Instead of developing a continuous growth, this grass grows in small,
irregular patches, usually about the size of a man's hand, with narrow
strips of perfectly bare ground between them. The grass curls closely
upon the ground, in a woolly carpet or cushion, greatly resembling a
layer of Florida moss. Even in spring-time it never shows more color
than a tint of palest green, and the landscape which is dependent upon
this grass for color is never more than "a gray and melancholy waste."
Unlike the soft, juicy, and succulent grasses of the well-watered
portions of the United States, the tiny leaves of the grama grass are
hard, stiff, and dry. I have often noticed that in grazing neither
cattle nor horses are able to bite off the blades, but instead each leaf
is pulled out of the tuft, seemingly by its root.

Notwithstanding its dry and uninviting appearance, this grass is highly
nutritious, and its fat-producing qualities are unexcelled. The heat of
summer dries it up effectually without destroying its nutritive
elements, and it becomes for the remainder of the year excellent hay,
cured on its own roots. It affords good grazing all the year round, save
in winter, when it is covered with snow, and even then, if the snow is
not too deep, the buffaloes, cattle, and horses paw down through it to
reach the grass, or else repair to wind-swept ridges and hill-tops,
where the snow has been blown off and left the grass partly exposed.
Stock prefer it to all the other grasses of the plains.

On bottom-lands, where moisture is abundant, this grass develops much
more luxuriantly, growing in a close mass, and often to a height of a
foot or more, if not grazed down, when it is cut for hay, and sometimes
yields 11/2 tons to the acre. In Montana and the north it is generally
known as "buffalo-grass," a name to which it would seem to be fully
entitled, notwithstanding the fact that this name is also applied, and
quite generally, to another species, the next to be noticed.

_Buchloë dactyloides_ (Southern buffalo-grass).--This species is next
in value and extent of distribution to the grama grass. It also is found
all over the great plains south of Nebraska and southern Wyoming, but
not further north, although in many localities it occurs so sparsely as
to be of little account. A single bunch of it very greatly resembles
_Bouteloua oligostachya_, but its general growth is very different. It
is very short, its general mass seldom rising more than 3 inches above
the ground. It grows in extensive patches, and spreads by means of
stolons, which sometimes are 2 feet in length, with joints every 3 or 4
inches. Owing to its southern distribution this might well be named the
Southern buffalo grass, to distinguish it from the two other species of
higher latitudes, to which the name "buffalo" has been fastened forever.

_Stipa spartea_ (Northern buffalo-grass; wild oat).--This grass is found
in southern Manitoba, westwardly across the plains to the Rocky
Mountains, and southward as far as Montana, where it is common in many
localities. On what was once the buffalo range of the British
Possessions this rank grass formed the bulk of the winter pasturage, and
in that region is quite as famous as our grama grass. An allied species
(_Stipa viridula_, bunch-grass) is "widely diffused over our Rocky
Mountain region, extending to California and British America, and
furnishing a considerable part of the wild forage of the region" _Stipa
spartea_ bears an ill name among stockmen on account of the fact that at
the base of each seed is a very hard and sharp-pointed callus, which
under certain circumstances (so it is said) lodges in the cheeks of
domestic animals that feed upon this grass when it is dry, and which
cause much trouble. But the buffalo, like the wild horse and half-wild
range cattle, evidently escaped this annoyance. This grass is one of the
common species over a wide area of the northern plains, and is always
found on soil which is comparatively dry. In Dakota, Minnesota, and
northwest Iowa it forms a considerable portion of the upland prairie
hay.

Of the remaining grasses it is practically impossible to single out any
one as being specially entitled to fourth place in this list. There are
several species which flourish in different localities, and in many
respects appear to be of about equal importance as food for stock. Of
these the following are the most noteworthy:

_Aristida purpurea_ (Western beard-grass; purple "bunch-grass" of
Montana).--On the high, rolling prairies of the Missouri-Yellowstone
divide this grass is very abundant. It grows in little solitary bunches,
about 6 inches high, scattered through the curly buffalo-grass
(_Bouteloua oligostachya_). Under more favorable conditions it grows to
a height of 12 to 18 inches. It is one of the prettiest grasses of that
region, and in the fall and winter its purplish color makes it quite
noticeable. The Montana stockmen consider it one of the most valuable
grasses of that region for stock of all kinds. Mr. C. M. Jacobs assured
me that the buffalo used to be very fond of this grass, and that
"wherever this grass grew in abundance there were the best
hunting-grounds for the bison." It appears that _Aristida purpurea_ is
not sufficiently abundant elsewhere in the Northwest to make it an
important food for stock; but Dr. Vesey declares that it is "abundant on
the plains of Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas."

_Koeleria cristata._--Very generally distributed from Texas and New
Mexico to the British Possessions; sand hills and arid soils; mountains,
up to 8,000 feet.

_Poa tenuifolia_ (blue-grass of the plains and mountains).--A valuable
"bunch-grass," widely distributed throughout the great pasture region;
grows in all sorts of soils and situations; common in the Yellowstone
Park.

_Festuca scabrella_ (bunch-grass).--One of the most valuable grasses of
Montana and the Northwest generally; often called the "great
bunch-grass." It furnishes excellent food for horses and cattle, and is
so tall it is cut in large quantities for hay. This is the prevailing
species on the foot-hills and mountains generally, up to an altitude of
7,000 feet, where it is succeeded by _Festuca ovina_.

_Andropogon provincialis_ (blue stem).--An important species, extending
from eastern Kansas and Nebraska to the foot-hills of the Rocky
Mountains, and from Northern Texas to the Saskatchewan; common in
Montana on alkali flats and bottom lands generally. This and the
preceding species were of great value to the buffalo in winter, when the
shorter grasses were covered with snow.

_Andropogon scoparius_ (bunch grass; broom sedge; wood-grass).--Similar
to the preceding in distribution and value, but not nearly so tall.

None of the buffalo grasses are found in the mountains. In the mountain
regions which have been visited by the buffalo and in the Yellowstone
Park, where to-day the only herd remaining in a state of nature is to be
found (though not by the man with a gun), the following are the grasses
which form all but a small proportion of the ruminant food: _Koeleria
cristata_; _Poa tenuifolia_ (Western blue-grass); _Stipa viridula_
(feather-grass); _Stipa comata_; _Agropyrum divergens_; _Agropyrum
caninum_.

When pressed by hunger, the buffalo used to browse on certain species of
sage-brush, particularly _Atriplex canescens_ of the Southwest. But he
was discriminating in the matter of diet, and as far as can be
ascertained he was never known to eat the famous and much-dreaded "loco"
weed (_Astragalus molissimus_), which to ruminant animals is a veritable
drug of madness. Domestic cattle and horses often eat this plant; where
it is abundant, and become demented in consequence.




VII. MENTAL CAPACITY AND DISPOSITION.


(1) _Reasoning from cause to effect._--The buffalo of the past was an
animal of a rather low order of intelligence, and his dullness of
intellect was one of the important factors in his phenomenally swift
extermination. He was provokingly slow in comprehending the existence
and nature of the dangers that threatened his life, and, like the stupid
brute that he was, would very often stand quietly and see two or three
score, or even a hundred, of his relatives and companions shot down
before his eyes, with no other feeling than one of stupid wonder and
curiosity. Neither the noise nor smoke of the still-hunter's rifle, the
falling, struggling, nor the final death of his companions conveyed to
his mind the idea of a danger to be fled from, and so the herd stood
still and allowed the still-hunter to slaughter its members at will.

Like the Indian, and many white men also, the buffalo seemed to feel
that their number was so great it could never be sensibly diminished.
The presence of such a great multitude gave to each of its individuals a
feeling of security and mutual support that is very generally found in
animals who congregate in great herds. The time was when a band of elk
would stand stupidly and wait for its members to be shot down one after
another; but it is believed that this was due more to panic than to a
lack of comprehension of danger.

The fur seals who cover the "hauling grounds" of St. Paul and St. George
Islands, Alaska, in countless thousands, have even less sense of danger
and less comprehension of the slaughter of thousands of their kind,
which takes place daily, than had the bison. They allow themselves to be
herded and driven off landwards from the hauling-ground for half a mile
to the killing-ground, and, finally, with most cheerful indifference,
permit the Aleuts to club their brains out.

It is to be added that whenever and wherever seals or sea-lions inhabit
a given spot, with but few exceptions, it is an easy matter to approach
individuals of the herd. The presence of an immense number of
individuals plainly begets a feeling of security and mutual support. And
let not the bison or the seal be blamed for this, for man himself
exhibits the same foolish instinct. Who has not met the woman of mature
years and full intellectual vigor who is mortally afraid to spend a
night entirely alone in her own house, but is perfectly willing to do
so, and often does do so without fear, when she can have the company of
one small and helpless child, or, what is still worse, three or four of
them! But with the approach of extermination, and the utter breaking up
of all the herds, a complete change has been wrought in the character of
the bison. At last, but alas! entirely too late, the crack of the rifle
and its accompanying puff of smoke conveyed to the slow mind of the
bison a sense of deadly danger to himself. At last he recognized man,
whether on foot or horseback, or peering at him from a coulée, as his
mortal enemy. At last he learned to run. In 1886 we found the scattered
remnant of the great northern herd the wildest and most difficult
animals to kill that we had ever hunted in any country. It had been only
through the keenest exercise of all their powers of self-preservation
that those buffaloes had survived until that late day, and we found
them almost as swift as antelopes and far more wary. The instant a
buffalo caught sight of a man, even though a mile distant, he was off at
the top of his speed, and generally ran for some wild region several
miles away.

In our party was an experienced buffalo-hunter, who in three years had
slaughtered over three thousand head for their hides. He declared that
if he could ever catch a "bunch" at rest he could "get a stand" the same
as he used to do, and kill several head before the rest would run. It so
happened that the first time we found buffaloes we discovered a bunch of
fourteen head, lying in the sun at noon, on the level top of a low
butte, all noses pointing up the wind. We stole up within range and
fired. At the instant the first shot rang out up sprang every buffalo as
if he had been thrown upon his feet by steel springs, and in a second's
time the whole bunch was dashing away from us with the speed of
race-horses.

Our buffalo-hunter declared that in chasing buffaloes we could count
with certainty upon their always running against the wind, for this had
always been their habit. Although this was once their habit, we soon
found that those who now represent the survival of the fittest have
learned better wisdom, and now run (1) away from their pursuer and (2)
toward the best hiding place. Now they pay no attention whatever to the
direction of the wind, and if a pursuer follows straight behind, a
buffalo may change his course three or four times in a 10-mile chase. An
old bull once led one of our hunters around three-quarters of a circle
which had a diameter of 5 or 6 miles.

The last buffaloes were mentally as capable of taking care of themselves
as any animals I ever hunted. The power of original reasoning which they
manifested in scattering all over a given tract of rough country, like
hostile Indians when hotly pressed by soldiers, in the Indian-like
manner in which they hid from sight in deep hollows, and, as we finally
proved, in _grazing only in ravines and hollows_, proved conclusively
that _but for the use of fire-arms_ those very buffaloes would have been
actually safe from harm by man, and that they would have increased
indefinitely. As they were then, the Indians' arrows and spears could
never have been brought to bear upon them, save in rare instances, for
they had thoroughly learned to dread man and fly from him for their
lives. Could those buffaloes have been protected from rifles and
revolvers the resultant race would have displayed far more active mental
powers, keener vision, and finer physique than the extinguished race
possessed.

In fleeing from an enemy the buffalo ran against the wind, in order that
his keen scent might save him from the disaster of running upon new
enemies; which was an idea wholly his own, and not copied by any other
animal so far as known.

But it must be admitted that the buffalo of the past was very often a
most stupid reasoner. He would deliberately walk into a quicksand,
where hundreds of his companions were already ingulfed and in their
death-struggle. He would quit feeding, run half a mile, and rush
headlong into a moving train of cars that happened to come between him
and the main herd on the other side of the track. He allowed himself to
be impounded and slaughtered by a howling mob in a rudely constructed
pen, which a combined effort on the part of three or four old bulls
would have utterly demolished at any point. A herd of a thousand
buffaloes would allow an armed hunter to gallop into their midst, very
often within arm's-length, when any of the bulls nearest him might
easily have bowled him over and had him trampled to death in a moment.
The hunter who would ride in that manner into a herd of the Cape
buffaloes of Africa (_Bubalus caffer_) would be unhorsed and killed
before he had gone half a furlong.

(2) _Curiosity._--The buffalo of the past possessed but little
curiosity; he was too dull to entertain many unnecessary thoughts. Had
he possessed more of this peculiar trait, which is the mark of an
inquiring mind, he would much sooner have accomplished a comprehension
of the dangers that proved his destruction. His stolid indifference to
everything he did not understand cost him his existence, although in
later years he displayed more interest in his environment. On one
occasion in hunting I staked my success with an old bull I was pursuing
on the chance that when he reached the crest of a ridge his curiosity
would prompt him to pause an instant to look at me. Up to that moment he
had had only one quick glance at me before he started to run. As he
climbed the slope ahead of me, in full view, I dismounted and made ready
to fire the instant he should pause to look at me. As I expected, he did
come to a fall stop on the crest of the ridge, and turned half around to
look at me. But for his curiosity I should have been obliged to fire at
him under very serious disadvantages.

(3) _Fear._--With the buffalo, fear of man is now the ruling passion.
Says Colonel Dodge: "He is as timid about his flank and rear as a raw
recruit. When traveling nothing in front stops him, but an unusual
object in the rear will send him to the right-about [toward the main
body of the herd] at the top of his speed."

(4) _Courage._--It was very seldom that the buffalo evinced any courage
save that of despair, which even cowards possess. Unconscious of his
strength, his only thought was flight, and it was only when brought to
bay that he was ready to fight. Now and then, however, in the chase, the
buffalo turned upon his pursuer and overthrew horse and rider. Sometimes
the tables were completely turned, and the hunter found his only safety
in flight. During the buffalo slaughter the butchers sometimes had
narrow escapes from buffaloes supposed to be dead or mortally wounded,
and a story comes from the great northern range south of Glendive of a
hunter who was killed by an old bull whose tongue he had actually cut
out in the belief that he was dead.

Sometimes buffalo cows display genuine courage in remaining with their
calves in the presence of danger, although in most cases they left their
offspring to their fate. During a hunt for live buffalo calves,
undertaken by Mr. C. J. Jones of Garden City, Kans., in 1886, and very
graphically described by a staff correspondent of the American Field in
a series of articles in that journal under the title of "The Last of the
Buffalo," the following remarkable incident occurred:[41]

[Note 41: American Field, July 24, 1886, p. 78.]

"The last calf was caught by Carter, who roped it neatly as Mr. Jones
cut it out of the herd and turned it toward him. This was a fine heifer
calf, and was apparently the idol of her mother's heart, for the latter
came very near making a casualty the price of the capture. As soon as
the calf was roped, the old cow left the herd and charged on Carter
viciously, as he bent over his victim. Seeing the danger, Mr. Jones rode
in at just the nick of time, and drove the cow off for a moment; but she
returned again and again, and finally began charging him whenever he
came near; so that, much as he regretted it, he had to shoot her with
his revolver, which he did, killing her almost immediately."

The mothers of the thirteen other calves that were caught by Mr. Jones's
party allowed their offspring to be "cut out," lassoed, and tied, while
they themselves devoted all their energies to leaving them as far behind
as possible.

(5) _Affection._--While the buffalo cows manifested a fair degree of
affection for their young, the adult bulls of the herd often displayed a
sense of responsibility for the safety of the calves that was admirable,
to say the least. Those who have had opportunities for watching large
herds tell us that whenever wolves approached and endeavored to reach a
calf the old bulls would immediately interpose and drive the enemy away.
It was a well-defined habit for the bulls to form the outer circle of
every small group or section of a great herd, with the calves in the
center, well guarded from the wolves, which regarded them as their most
choice prey.

Colonel Dodge records a remarkable incident in illustration of the
manner in which the bull buffaloes protected the calves of the herd.[42]

[Note 42: Plains of the Great West, p. 125.]

"The duty of protecting the calves devolved almost entirely on the
bulls. I have seen evidences of this many times, but the most remarkable
instance I have ever heard of was related to me by an army surgeon, who
was an eye-witness.

"He was one evening returning to camp after a day's hunt, when his
attention was attracted by the curious action of a little knot of six or
eight buffalo. Approaching sufficiently near to see clearly, he
discovered that this little knot were all bulls, standing in a close
circle, with their heads outwards, while in a concentric circle at some
12 or 15 paces distant sat, licking their chaps in impatient expectancy,
at least a dozen large gray wolves (excepting man, the most dangerous
enemy of the buffalo).

"The doctor determined to watch the performance. After a few moments
the knot broke up, and, still keeping in a compact mass, started on a
trot for the main herd, some half a mile oft". To his very great
astonishment, the doctor now saw that the central and controlling figure
of this mass was a poor little calf so newly born as scarcely to be able
to walk. After going 50 or 100 paces the calf laid down, the bulls
disposed themselves in a circle as before, and the wolves, who had
trotted along on each side of their retreating supper, sat down and
licked their chaps again; and though the doctor did not see the finale,
it being late and the camp distant, he had no doubt that the noble
fathers did their whole duty by their offspring, and carried it safely
to the herd."

(6) _Temper._--I have asked many old buffalo hunters for facts in regard
to the temper and disposition of herd buffaloes, and all agree that they
are exceedingly quiet, peace loving, and even indolent animals at all
times save during the rutting season. Says Colonel Dodge: "The habits of
the buffalo are almost identical with those of the domestic cattle.
Owing either to a more pacific disposition, or to the greater number of
bulls, there, is very little fighting, even at the season when it might
be expected. I have been among them for days, have watched their conduct
for hours at a time, and with the very best opportunities for
observation, but have never seen a regular combat between bulls. They
frequently strike each other with their horns, but this seems to be a
mere expression of impatience at being crowded."

In referring to the "running season" of the buffalo, Mr. Catlin says:
"It is no uncommon thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see
several thousands in a mass eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of
dust, which is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or
engaged in desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and
butting at each other in a most furious manner."

On the whole, the disposition of the buffalo is anything but vicious.
Both sexes yield with surprising readiness to the restraints of
captivity, and in a remarkably short time become, if taken young, as
fully domesticated as ordinary cattle. Buffalo calves are as easily
tamed as domestic ones, and make very interesting pets. A prominent
trait of character in the captive buffalo is a mulish obstinacy or
headstrong perseverance under certain circumstances that is often very
annoying. When a buffalo makes up his mind to go through a fence, he is
very apt to go through, either peaceably or by force, as occasion
requires. Fortunately, however, the captive animals usually accept a
fence in the proper spirit, and treat it with a fair degree of respect.




VIII. VALUE OF THE BUFFALO TO MAN.


It may fairly be supposed that if the people of this country could have
been made to realize the immense money value of the great buffalo herds
as they existed in 1870, a vigorous and successful effort would have
been made to regulate and restrict the slaughter. The fur seal of
Alaska, of which about 100,000 are killed annually for their skins,
yield an annual revenue to the Government of $100,000 and add $900,000
more to the actual wealth of the United States. It pays to protect those
seals, and we mean to protect them against all comers who seek their
unrestricted slaughter, no matter whether the poachers be American,
English, Russian, or Canadian. It would be folly to do otherwise, and if
those who would exterminate the fur seal by shooting them in the water
will not desist for the telling, then they must by the compelling.

The fur seal is a good investment for the United States, and their
number is not diminishing. As the buffalo herds existed in 1870, 500,000
head of bulls, young and old, could have been killed every year for a
score of years without sensibly diminishing the size of the herds. At a
low estimate these could easily have been made to yield various products
worth $5 each, as follows: Kobe, $2.50; tongue, 20 cents; meat of
hindquarters, $2; bones, horns, and hoofs, 25 cents; total, $5. And the
amount annually added to the wealth of the United States would have been
$2,500,000.

On all the robes taken for the market, say, 200,000, the Government
could have collected a tax of 50 cents each, which would have yielded a
sum doubly sufficient to have maintained a force of mounted police fully
competent to enforce the laws regulating the slaughter. Had a contract
for the protection of the buffalo been offered at $50,000 per annum, ay,
or even half that sum, an army of competent men would have competed for
it every year, and it could have been carried out to the letter. But, as
yet, the American people have not learned to spend money for the
protection of valuable game; and by the time they do learn it, there
will be no game to protect.

Even despite the enormous waste of raw material that ensued in the
utilization of the buffalo product, the total cash value of all the
material derived from this source, if it could only be reckoned up,
would certainly amount to many millions of dollars--perhaps twenty
millions, all told. This estimate may, to some, seem high, but when we
stop to consider that in eight years, from 1876 to 1884, a single firm,
that of Messrs. J. & A. Boskowitz, 105 Greene street, New York, paid out
the enormous sum of $923,070 (nearly one million) for robes and hides,
and that in a single year (1882) another firm, that of Joseph Ullman,
165 Mercer street, New York, paid out $216,250 for robes and hides, it
may not seem so incredible.

Had there been a deliberate plan for the suppression of all statistics
relating to the slaughter of buffalo in the United States, and what it
yielded, the result could not have been more complete barrenness than
exists to-day in regard to this subject. There is only one railway
company which kept its books in such a manner as to show the kind and
quantity of its business at that time. Excepting this, nothing is known
definitely.

Fortunately, enough facts and figures were recorded during the hunting
operations of the Red River half-breeds to enable us, by bringing them
all together, to calculate with sufficient exactitude the value of the
buffalo to them from 1820 to 1840. The result ought to be of interest to
all who think it is not worth while to spend money in preserving our
characteristic game animals.

In Ross's "Red River Settlement," pp. 242-273, and Schoolcraft's "North
American Indians," Part iv, pp. 101-110, are given detailed accounts of
the conduct and results of two hunting expeditions by the half-breeds,
with many valuable statistics. On this data we base our calculation.

Taking the result of one particular day's slaughter as an index to the
methods of the hunters in utilizing the products of the chase, we find
that while "not less than 2,500 animals were killed," out of that number
only 375 bags of pemmican and 240 bales of dried meat were made. "Now,"
says Mr. Ross," making all due allowance for waste, 750 animals would
have been ample for such a result. What, then, we might ask, became of
the remaining 1,750! * * * Scarcely one-third in number of the animals
killed is turned to account."

A bundle of dried meat weighs 60 to 70 pounds, and a bag of pemmican 100
to 110 pounds. If economically worked up, a whole buffalo cow yields
half a bag of pemmican (about 55 pounds) and three-fourths of a bundle
of dried meat (say 45 pounds). The most economical calculate that from
eight to ten cows are required to load a single Red River cart. The
proceeds of 1,776 cows once formed 228 bags of pemmican, 1,213 bales of
dried meat, 166 sacks of tallow, each weighing 200 pounds, 556 bladders
of marrow weighing 12 pounds each, and the value of the whole was
$8,160. The total of the above statement is 132,057 pounds of buffalo
product for 1,776 cows, or within a fraction of 75 pounds to each cow.
The bulls and young animals killed were not accounted for.

The expedition described by Mr. Ross contained 1,210 carts and 620
hunters, and returned with 1,089,000 pounds of meat, making 900 pounds
for each cart, and 200 pounds for each individual in the expedition, of
all ages and both sexes. Allowing, as already ascertained, that of the
above quantity of product every 75 pounds represents one cow saved and
two and one third buffaloes wasted, it means that 14,520 buffaloes were
killed and utilized and 33,250 buffaloes were killed and eaten fresh or
wasted, and 47,770 buffaloes were killed by 620 hunters, or an average
of 77 buffaloes to each hunter. The total number of buffaloes killed for
each cart was 39.

Allowing, what was actually the case, that every buffalo killed would,
if properly cared for, have yielded meat, fat, and robe worth at least
$5, the total value of the buffaloes slaughtered by that expedition
amounted to $258,850, and of which the various products actually
utilized represented a cash value of $72,001 added to the wealth of the
Red River half-breeds.

In 1820 there went 540 carts to the buffalo plains; in 1825, 680; in
1830, 820; in 1835, 970; in 1840, 1,210.

From 1820 to 1825 the average for each year was 610; from 1825 to 1830,
750; from 1830 to 1835, 895; from 1835 to 1840, 1,000.

Accepting the statements of eye-witnesses that for every buffalo killed
two and one-third buffaloes are wasted or eaten on the spot, and that
every loaded cart represented thirty-nine dead buffaloes which were
worth when utilized $5 each, we have the following series of totals:

From 1820 to 1825 five expeditions, of 610 carts each, killed 118,950
buffaloes, worth $594,750.

From 1825 to 1830 five expeditions, of 750 carts each, killed 146,250
buffaloes, worth $731,250.

From 1830 to 1835 five expeditions, of 895 carts each, killed 174,525
buffaloes, worth $872,625.

From 1835 to 1840 five expeditions, of 1,090 carts each, killed 212,550
buffaloes, worth $1,062,750.

Total number of buffaloes killed in twenty years,[43] $652,275; total
value of buffaloes killed in twenty years,[43] $3,261,375; total value
of the product utilized[43] and added to the wealth of the settlements,
$978,412.

[Note 43: By the Red River half-breeds only.]

The Eskimo has his seal, which yields nearly everything that he
requires; the Korak of Siberia depends for his very existence upon his
reindeer; the Ceylon native has the cocoa-nut palm, which leaves him
little else to desire, and the North American Indian had the American,
bison. If any animal was ever designed by the hand of nature for the
express purpose of supplying, at one stroke, nearly all the wants of an
entire race, surely the buffalo was intended for the Indian.

And right well was this gift of the gods utilized by the children of
nature to whom it came. Up to the time when the United States Government
began to support our Western Indians by the payment of annuities and
furnishing quarterly supplies of food, clothing, blankets, cloth, tents,
etc., the buffalo had been the main dependence of more than 50,000
Indians who inhabited the buffalo range and its environs. Of the many
different uses to which the buffalo and his various parts were, put by
the red man, the following were the principal ones:

The body of the buffalo yielded fresh meat, of which thousands of tons
were consumed; dried meat, prepared in summer for winter use; pemmican
(also prepared in summer), of meat, fat, and berries; tallow, made up
into large balls or sacks, and kept in store; marrow, preserved in
bladders; and tongues, dried and smoked, and eaten as a delicacy.

The skin of the buffalo yielded a robe, dressed with the hair on, for
clothing and bedding; a hide, dressed without the hair, which made a
teepee cover, when a number were sewn together; boats, when sewn
together in a green state, over a wooden framework. Shields, made from
the thickest portions, as rawhide; ropes, made up as rawhide; clothing
of many kinds; bags for use in traveling; coffins, or winding sheets for
the dead, etc.

Other portions utilized were sinews, which furnished fiber for ropes,
thread, bow-strings, snow-shoe webs, etc.; hair, which was sometimes
made into belts and ornaments; "buffalo chips," which formed a valuable
and highly-prized fuel; bones, from which many articles of use and
ornament were made; horns, which were made into spoons, drinking
vessels, etc.

After the United States Government began to support the buffalo-hunting
Indians with annuities and supplies, the woolen blanket and canvas tent
took the place of the buffalo robe and the skin-covered teepee, and
"Government beef" took the place of buffalo meat. But the slaughter of
buffaloes went on just the same, and the robes and hides taken were
traded for useless and often harmful luxuries, such as canned
provisions, fancy knickknacks, whisky, fire-arms of the most approved
pattern, and quantities of fixed ammunition. During the last ten years
of the existence of the herds it is an open question whether the buffalo
did not do our Indians more harm than good. Amongst the Crows, who were
liberally provided for by the Government, horse racing was a common
pastime, and the stakes were usually dressed buffalo robes.[44]

[Note 44: On one occasion, which is doubtless still remembered with
bitterness by many a Crow of the Custer Agency, my old friend Jim
McNaney backed his horse Ogalalla against the horses of the whole Crow
tribe. The Crows forthwith formed a pool, which consisted of a huge pile
of buffalo robes, worth about $1,200, and with it backed their best
race-horse. He was forthwith "beaten out of sight" by Ogalalla, and
another grievance was registered against the whites.]

The total disappearance of the buffalo has made no perceptible
difference in the annual cost of the Indians to the Government. During
the years when buffaloes were numerous and robes for the purchase of
fire-arms and cartridges were plentiful, Indian wars were frequent, and
always costly to the Government. The Indians were then quite
independent, because they could take the war path at any time and live
on buffalo indefinitely. Now, the case is very different. The last time
Sitting Bull went on the war-path and was driven up into Manitoba, he
had the doubtful pleasure of living on his ponies and dogs until he
became utterly starved out. Since his last escapade, the Sioux have been
compelled to admit that the game is up and the war-path is open to them
no longer. Should they wish to do otherwise they know that they could
survive only by killing cattle, and cattle that are guarded by cowboys
and ranchmen are no man's game. Therefore, while we no longer have to
pay for an annual campaign in force against hostile Indians, the total
absence of the buffalo brings upon the nation the entire support of the
Indian, and the cash outlay each year is as great as ever.

The value of the American bison to civilized man can never be
calculated, nor even fairly estimated. It may with safety be said,
however, that it has been probably tenfold greater than most persons
have ever supposed. It would be a work of years to gather statistics of
the immense bulk of robes and hides, undoubtedly amounting to millions
in the aggregate; the thousands of tons of meat, and the train-loads of
bones which have been actually utilized by man. Nor can the effect of
the bison's presence upon the general development of the great West ever
be calculated. It has sunk into the great sum total of our progress, and
well nigh lost to sight forever.

As a mere suggestion of the immense value of "the buffalo product" at
the time when it had an existence, I have obtained from two of our
leading fur houses in New York City, with branches elsewhere, a detailed
statement of their business in buffalo robes and hides during the last
few years of the trade. They not only serve to show the great value of
the share of the annual crop that passed through their hands, but that
of Messrs. J. & A. Boskowitz is of especial value, because, being
carefully itemized throughout, it shows the decline and final failure of
the trade in exact figures. I am under many obligations to both these
firms for their kindness in furnishing the facts I desired, and
especially to the Messrs. Boskowitz, who devoted considerable time and
labor to the careful compilation of the annexed statement of their
business in buffalo skins.

_Memorandum of buffalo robes and hides bought by Messrs J. & A.
Boskowitz, 101-105 Greene Street, New York, and 202 Lake street,
Chicago, from 1876 to 1884._

+----------------------------------------+
|Year | Buffalo robes.  | Buffalo hides. |
|     |Number.| Cost.   | Number.|Cost.  |
+-----+-------+---------+--------+-------+
|1876 | 31,838|  $39,620|   None.|   ... |
|1877 |  9,353|   35,560|   None.|   ... |
|1878 | 41,268|  150,600|   None.|   ... |
|1879 | 28,613|  110,420|   None.|   ... |
|1880 | 34,901|  176,200|   4,570|$13,140|
|1881 | 23,355|  151,800|  26,601| 89,030|
|1882 |  2,124|   15,600|  15,464| 44,140|
|1883 |  6,690|   29,770|  21,869| 67,190|
|1884 |  None.|      ...|     529|  1,720|
+-----+-------+---------+--------+-------+
|Total|177,142|$709,570 |  69,033|215,220|
+----------------------------------------+

Total number of buffalo skins handled in nine years, 246,175; total
cost, $924,790.

I have also been favored with some very interesting facts and figures
regarding the business done in buffalo skins by the firm of Mr. Joseph
Ullman, exporter and importer of furs and robes, of 165-107 Mercer
street, New York, and also 353 Jackson street, St. Paul, Minnesota. The
following letter was written me by Mr. Joseph Ullman on November 12,
1887, for which I am greatly indebted:

"Inasmuch as you particularly desire the figures for the years 1880-'86,
I have gone through my buffalo robe and hide accounts of those years,
and herewith give you approximate figures, as there are a good many
things to be considered which make it difficult to give exact figures.

"In 1881 we handled about 14,000 hides, average cost about $3.50, and
12,000 robes, average cost about $7.50.

"In 1882 we purchased between 35,000 and 40,000 hides, at an average
cost of about $3.50, and about 10,000 robes, at an average cost of about
$8.50.

"In 1883 we purchased from 6,000 to 7,000 hides and about 1,500 to 2,000
robes at a slight advance in price against the year previous.

"In 1884 we purchased less than 2,500 hides, and in my opinion these
were such as were carried over from the previous season in the
Northwest, and were not fresh-slaughtered skins. The collection of robes
this season was also comparatively small, and nominally robes carried
over from 1883.

"In 1885 the collection of hides amounted to little or nothing.

"The aforesaid goods were all purchased direct in the Northwest, that is
to say, principally in Montana, and shipped in care of our branch house
at St. Paul, Minnesota, to Joseph Ullman, Chicago. The robes mentioned
above were Indian-tanned robes and were mainly disposed of to the
jobbing trade both East and West.

"In 1881 and the years prior, the hides were divided into two kinds,
viz, robe hides, which were such as had a good crop of fur and were
serviceable for robe purposes, and the heavy and short-furred bull
hides. The former were principally sold to the John S. Way Manufacturing
Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and to numerous small robe tanners,
while the latter were sold for leather purposes to various hide-tanners
throughout the United States and Canada, and brought 51/2 to 81/2 cents per
pound. A very large proportion of these latter were tanned by the Wilcox
Tanning Company, Wilcox, Pennsylvania.

"About the fall of 1882 we established a tannery for buffalo robes in
Chicago, and from that time forth we tanned all the good hides which we
received into robes and disposed of them in the same manner as the
Indian-tanned robes.

"I don't know that I am called upon to express an opinion as to the
benefit or disadvantage of the extermination of the buffalo, but
nevertheless take the liberty to say that I think that some proper law
restricting the unpardonable slaughter of the buffalo should have been
enacted at the time. It is a well-known fact that soon after the
Northern Pacific Railroad opened up that portion of the country, thereby
making the transportation of the buffalo hides feasible, that is to say,
reducing the cost of freight, thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were
killed for the sake of the hide alone, while the carcasses were left to
rot on the open plains.

"The average prices paid the buffalo hunters [from 1880 to 1884] was
about as follows: For cow hides [robes!], $3; bull hides, $2.50;
yearlings, $1.50; calves, 75 cents; and the cost of getting the hides to
market brought the cost up to about $3.50 per hide."

The amount actually paid out by Joseph Ullman, in four years, for
buffalo robes and hides was about $310,000, and this, too, long after
the great southern herd had ceased to exist, and when the northern herd
furnished the sole supply. It thus appears that during the course of
eight years business (leaving out the small sum paid out in 1884), on
the part of the Messrs. Boskowitz, and four years on that of Mr. Joseph
Ullman, these two firms alone paid out the enormous sum of $1,233,070
for buffalo robes and hides which they purchased to sell again at a good
profit. By the time their share of the buffalo product reached the
consumers it must have represented an actual money value of about
$2,000,000.

Besides these two firms there were at that time many others who also
handled great quantities of buffalo skins and hides for which they paid
out immense sums of money. In this country the other leading firms
engaged in this business were I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton; P. B.
Weare & Co., Chicago; Obern, Hoosick & Co., Chicago and Saint Paul;
Martin Bates & Co., and Messrs. Shearer, Nichols & Co. (now Hurlburt,
Shearer & Sanford), of New York. There were also many others whose names
I am now unable to recall.

In the British Possessions and Canada the frontier business was largely
monopolized by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, although the annual
"output" of robes and hides was but small in comparison with that
gathered in the United States, where the herds were far more numerous.
Even in their most fruitful locality for robes--the country south of the
Saskatchewan--this company had a very powerful competitor in the firm of
I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton, which secured the lion's share of the
spoil and sent it down the Missouri River.

It is quite certain that the utilization of the buffalo product, even so
far as it was accomplished, resulted in the addition of several millions
of dollars to the wealth of the people of the United States. That the
total sum, could it be reckoned up, would amount to at least fifteen
millions, seems reasonably certain; and my own impression is that twenty
millions would be nearer the mark. It is much to be regretted that the
exact truth can never be known, for in this age of universal slaughter a
knowledge of the cash value of the wild game of the United States that
has been killed up to date might go far toward bringing about the actual
as well as the theoretical protection of what remains.

       *       *       *       *       *

UTILIZATION OF THE BUFFALO BY WHITE MEN.

_Robes._--Ordinarily the skin of a large ruminant is of little value in
comparison with the bulk of toothsome flesh it covers. In fattening
domestic cattle for the market, the value of the hide is so
insignificant that it amounts to no more than a butcher's perquisite in
reckoning up the value of the animal. With the buffalo, however, so
enormous was the waste of the really available product that probably
nine-tenths of the total value derived from the slaughter of the animal
came from his skin alone. Of this, about four-fifths came from the
utilization of the furry robe and one-fifth from skins classed as
"hides," which were either taken in the summer season, when the hair was
very short or almost absent, and used for the manufacture of leather and
leather goods, or else were the poorly-furred skins of old bulls.

The season for robe-taking was from October 15 to February 15, and a
little later in the more northern latitudes. In the United States the
hair of the buffalo was still rather short up to the first of November;
but by the middle of November it was about at its finest as to length,
density, color, and freshness. The Montana hunters considered that the
finest robes were those taken from November 15 to December 15. Before
the former date the hair had not quite attained perfection in length,
and after the latter it began to show wear and lose color. The winter
storms of December and January began to leave their mark upon the robes
by the 1st of February, chiefly by giving the hair a bleached and
weathered appearance. By the middle of February the pelage was decidedly
on the wane, and the robe-hunter was also losing his energy. Often,
however, the hunt was kept up until the middle of March, until either
the deterioration of the quality of the robe, the migration of the herds
northward, or the hunter's longing to return "to town" and "clean up,"
brought the hunt to an end.

On the northern buffalo range, the hunter, or "buffalo skinner," removed
the robe in the following manner:

When the operator had to do his work alone, which was almost always the
case, he made haste to skin his victims while they were yet warm, if
possible, and before _rigor mortis_ had set in; but, at all hazards,
before they should become hard frozen. With a warm buffalo he could
easily do his work single-handed, but with one rigid or frozen stiff it
was a very different matter.

His first act was to heave the carcass over until it lay fairly upon its
back, with its feet up in the air. To keep it in that position he
wrenched the head violently around to one side, close against the
shoulder, at the point where the hump was highest and the tendency to
roll the greatest, and used it very effectually as a chock to keep the
body from rolling back upon its side. Having fixed the carcass in
position he drew forth his steel, sharpened his sharp-pointed
"ripping-knife," and at once proceeded to make all the opening cuts in
the skin. Each leg was girdled to the bone, about 8 inches above the
hoof, and the skin of the leg ripped open from that point along the
inside to the median line of the body. A long, straight cut was then
made along the middle of the breast and abdomen, from the root of the
tail to the chin. In skinning cows and young animals, nothing but the
skin of the forehead and nose was left on the skull, the skin of the
throat and cheeks being left on the hide; but in skinning old bulls, on
whose heads the skin was very thick and tough, the whole head was left
unskinned, to save labor and time. The skin of the neck was severed in a
circle around the neck, just behind the ears. It is these huge heads of
bushy brown hair, looking, at a little distance, quite black, in sharp
contrast with the ghastly whiteness of the perfect skeletons behind
them, which gives such a weird and ghostly appearance to the lifeless
prairies of Montana where the bone-gatherer has not yet done his perfect
work. The skulls of the cows and young buffaloes are as clean and bare
as if they had been carefully macerated, and bleached by a skilled
osteologist.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. A DEAD BULL. From a photograph by L. A. Huffman.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2. BUFFALO SKINNERS AT WORK. From a photograph by
L. A. Huffman.]

The opening cuts having been made, the broad-pointed "skinning-knife"
was duly sharpened, and with it the operator fell to work to detach the
skin from the body in the shortest possible time. The tail was always
skinned and left on the hide. As soon as the skin was taken off it was
spread out on a clean, smooth, and level spot of ground, and stretched
to its fullest extent, inside uppermost. On the northern range, very few
skins were "pegged out," _i. e._, stretched thoroughly and held by means
of wooden pegs driven through the edges of the skin into the earth. It
was practiced to a limited extent on the southern range during the
latter part of the great slaughter, when buffaloes were scarce and time
abundant. Ordinarily, however, there was no time for pegging, nor were
pegs available on the range to do the work with. A warm skin stretched
on the curly buffalo-grass, hair side down, sticks to the ground of
itself until it has ample time to harden. On the northern range the
skinner always cut the initials of his outfit in the thin subcutaneous
muscle which was always found adhering to the skin on each side, and
which made a permanent and very plain mark of ownership.

In the south, the traders who bought buffalo robes on the range
sometimes rigged up a rude press, with four upright posts and a huge
lever, in which robes that had been folded into a convenient size were
pressed into bales, like bales of cotton. These could be transported by
wagon much more economically than could loose robes. An illustration of
this process is given in an article by Theodore R. Davis, entitled "The
Buffalo Range," in _Harper's Magazine_ for January, 1869, Vol. xxxviii,
p. 163. The author describes the process as follows:

"As the robes are secured, the trader has them arranged in lots of ten
each, with but little regard for quality other than some care that
particularly fine robes do not go too many in one lot. These piles are
then pressed into a compact bale by means of a rudely constructed affair
composed of saplings and a chain."

On the northern range, skins were not folded until the time came to haul
them in. Then the hunter repaired to the scene of his winter's work,
with a wagon surmounted by a hay-rack (or something like it), usually
drawn by four horses. As the skins were gathered up they were folded
once, lengthwise down the middle, with the hair inside. Sometimes as
many as 100 skins were hauled at one load by four horses.

On one portion of the northern range the classification of buffalo
peltries was substantially as follows: Under the head _of robes_ was
included all cow skins taken during the proper season, from one year old
upward, and all bull skins from one to three years old. Bull skins over
three years of age were classed as _hides_, and while the best of them
were finally tanned and used as robes, the really poor ones were
converted into leather. The large robes, when tanned, were used very
generally throughout the colder portions of North America as sleigh
robes and wraps, and for bedding in the regions of extreme cold. The
small robes, from the young animals, and likewise many large robes, were
made into overcoats, at once the warmest and the most cumbersome that
ever enveloped a human being. Thousands of old bull robes were tanned
with the hair on, and the body portions were made into overshoes, with
the woolly hair inside--absurdly large and uncouth, but very warm.

I never wore a pair of buffalo overshoes without being torn by
conflicting emotions--mortification at the ridiculous size of my
combined foot-gear, big boots inside of huge overshoes, and supreme
comfort derived from feet that were always warm.

Besides the ordinary robe, the hunters and fur buyers of Montana
recognized four special qualities, as follows:

The "beaver robe," with exceedingly fine, wavy fur, the color of a
beaver, and having long, coarse, straight hairs coming through it. The
latter were of course plucked out in the process of manufacture. These
were very rare. In 1882 Mr. James McNaney took one, a cow robe, the only
one out of 1,200 robes taken that season, and sold it for $75, when
ordinary robes fetched only $3.50.

The "black-and-tan robe" is described as having the nose, flanks, and
inside of fore legs black-and-tan (whatever that may mean), while the
remainder of the robe is jet black.

A "buckskin robe" is from what is always called a "white buffalo," and
is in reality a dirty cream color instead of white. A robe of this
character sold in Miles City in 1882 for $200, and was the only one of
that character taken on the northern range during that entire winter. A
very few pure white robes have been taken, so I have been told, chiefly
by Indians, but I have never seen one.

A "blue robe" or "mouse-colored (?) robe" is one on which the body color
shows a decidedly bluish cast, and at the same time has long, fine fur.
Out of his 1,200 robes taken in 1882, Mr. McNaney picked out 12 which
passed muster as the much sought for blue robes, and they sold at $16
each.

As already intimated, the price paid on the range for ordinary buffalo
skins varied according to circumstances, and at different periods, and
in different localities, ranged all the way from 65 cents to $10. The
latter figure was paid in Texas in 1887 for the last lot of "robes" ever
taken. The lowest prices ever paid were during the tremendous slaughter
which annihilated the southern herd. Even as late as 1876, in the
southern country, cow robes brought on the range only from 65 to 90
cents, and bull robes $1.15. On the northern range, from 1881 to 1883,
the prices paid were much higher, ranging from $2.50 to $4.

[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIVE MINUTES' WORK. Photographed by L. A. Huffman.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2. SCENE ON THE NORTHERN BUFFALO RANGE. Photographed
by L. A. Huffman.]

A few hundred dressed robes still remain in the hands of some of the
largest fur dealers in New York, Chicago, and Montreal, which can be
purchased at prices much lower than one would expect, considering the
circumstances. In 1888, good robes, Indian tanned, were offered in New
York at prices ranging from $15 to $30, according to size and quality,
but in Montreal no first-class robes were obtainable at less than $40.

_Hides._--Next in importance to robes was the class of skins known
commercially as hides. Under this head were classed all skins which for
any reason did not possess the pelage necessary to a robe, and were
therefore fit only for conversion into leather. Of these, the greater
portion consisted of the skins of old bulls on which the hair was of
poor quality and the skin itself too thick and heavy to ever allow of
its being made into a soft, pliable, and light-weight robe. The
remaining portion of the hides marketed were from buffaloes killed in
spring and summer, when the body and hindquarters ware almost naked.
Apparently the quantity of summer-killed hides marketed was not very
great, for it was only the meanest and most unprincipled ones of the
grand army of buffalo-killers who were mean enough to kill buffaloes in
summer simply for their hides. It is said that at one time
summer-killing was practiced on the southern range to an extent that
became a cause for alarm to the great body of more respectable hunters,
and the practice was frowned upon so severely that the wretches who
engaged in it found it wise to abandon it.

_Bones._--Next in importance to robes and hides was the bone product,
the utilization of which was rendered possible by the rigorous climate
of the buffalo plains. Under the influence of the wind and sun and the
extremes of heat and cold, the flesh remaining upon a carcass dried up,
disintegrated, and fell to dust, leaving the bones of almost the entire
skeleton as clean and bare as if they had been stripped of flesh by some
powerful chemical process. Very naturally, no sooner did the live
buffaloes begin to grow scarce than the miles of bleaching' bones
suggested the idea of finding a use for them. A market was readily found
for them in the East, and the prices paid per ton were sufficient to
make the business of bone-gathering quite remunerative. The bulk of the
bone product was converted into phosphate for fertilizing purposes, but
much of it was turned into carbon for use in the refining of sugar.

The gathering of bones became a common industry as early as 1872, during
which year 1,135,300 pounds were shipped over the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fé Railroad. In the year following the same road shipped 2,743,100
pounds, and in 1874 it handled 6,914,950 pounds more. This trade
continued from that time on until the plains have been gleaned so far
back from the railway lines that it is no longer profitable to seek
them. For that matter, however, it is said that south of the Union
Pacific nothing worth the seeking now remains.

The building of the Northern Pacific Railway made possible the shipment
of immense quantities of dry bones. Even as late as 1886 overland
travelers saw at many of the stations between Jamestown, Dakota, and
Billings, Montana, immense heaps of bones lying alongside the track
awaiting shipment. In 1885 a single firm shipped over 200 tons of bones
from Miles City.

The valley of the Missouri River was gleaned by teamsters who gathered
bones from as far back as 100 miles and hauled them to the river for
shipment on the steamers. An operator who had eight wagons in the
business informed me that in order to ship bones on the river steamers
it was necessary to crush them, and that for crushed bones, shipped in
bags, a Michigan fertilizer company paid $18 per ton. Uncrushed bones,
shipped by the railway, sold for $12 per ton.

It is impossible to ascertain the total amount or value of the bone
product, but it is certain that it amounted to many thousand tons, and
in value must have amounted to some hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But for the great number of railroads, river steamers, and sea-going
vessels (from Texas ports) engaged in carrying this product, it would
have cut an important figure in the commerce of the country, but owing
to the many interests between which it was divided it attracted little
attention.

_Meat._--The amount of fresh buffalo meat cured and marketed was really
very insignificant. So long as it was to be had at all it was so very
abundant that it was worth only from 2 to 3 cents per pound in the
market, and many reasons combined to render the trade in fresh buffalo
meat anything but profitable. Probably not more than one one-thousandth
of the buffalo meat that might have been saved and utilized was saved.
The buffalo carcasses that were wasted on the great plains every year
during the two great periods of slaughter (of the northern and southern
herds) would probably have fed to satiety during the entire time more
than a million persons.

As to the quality of buffalo meat, it may be stated in general terms
that it differs in no way whatever from domestic beef of the same age
produced by the same kind of grass. Perhaps there is no finer grazing
ground in the world than Montana, and the beef it produces is certainly
entitled to rank with the best. There are many persons who claim to
recognize a difference between the taste of buffalo meat and domestic
beef; but for my part I do not believe any difference really exists,
unless it is that the flesh of the buffalo is a little sweeter and more
juicy. As for myself, I feel certain I could not tell the difference
between the flesh of a three-year old buffalo and that of a domestic
beef of the same age, nor do I believe any one else could, even on a
wager. Having once seen a butcher eat an elephant steak in the belief
that it was beef from his own shop, and another butcher eat _loggerhead
turtle_ steak for beef, I have become somewhat skeptical in regard to
the intelligence of the human palate.

As a matter of experiment, during our hunt for buffalo we had buffalo
meat of all ages, from one year up to eleven, cooked in as many
different ways as our culinary department could turn out. We had it
broiled, fried with batter, roasted, boiled, and stewed. The last
method, when employed upon slices of meat that had been hacked from a
frozen hind-quarter, produced results that were undeniably tough and not
particularly good. But it was an unfair way to cook any kind of meat,
and may be guarantied to spoil the finest beef in the world.

Hump meat from a cow buffalo not too old, cut in slices and fried in
batter, _a la cowboy_, is delicious--a dish fit for the gods. We had
tongues in plenty, but the ordinary meat was so good they were not half
appreciated. Of course the tenderloin was above criticism, and even the
round steaks, so lightly esteemed by the epicure, were tender and juicy
to a most satisfactory degree.

It has been said that the meat of the buffalo has a coarser texture or
"grain" than domestic beef. Although I expected to find such to be the
case, I found no perceptible difference whatever, nor do I believe that
any exists. As to the distribution of fat I am unable to say, for the
reason that our buffaloes were not fat.

It is highly probable that the distribution of fat through the meat, so
characteristic of the shorthorn breeds, and which has been brought about
only by careful breeding, is not found in either the beef of the buffalo
or common range cattle. In this respect, shorthorn beef no doubt
surpasses both the others mentioned, but in all other points, texture,
flavor, and general tenderness, I am very sure it does not.

It is a great mistake for a traveler to kill a patriarchal old bull
buffalo, and after attempting to masticate a small portion of him to
rise up and declare that buffalo meat is coarse, tough, and dry. A
domestic bull of the same age would taste as tough. It is probably only
those who have had the bad taste to eat bull-beef who have ever found
occasion to asperse the reputation of _Bison americanus_ as a beef
animal.

Until people got tired of them, buffalo tongues were in considerable
demand, and hundreds, if not even thousands, of barrels of them were
shipped east from the buffalo country.

_Pemmican._--Out of the enormous waste of good buffalo flesh one product
stands forth as a redeeming feature--pemmican. Although made almost
exclusively by the half-breeds and Indians of the Northwest it
constituted a regular article of commerce of great value to overland
travelers, and was much sought for as long as it was produced. Its
peculiar "staying powers," due to the process of its manufacture, which
yielded a most nourishing food in a highly condensed form, made it of
inestimable value to the overland traveler who must travel light or not
at all. A handful of pemmican was sufficient food to constitute a meal
when provisions were at all scarce. The price of pemmican in Winnipeg
was once as low as 2d. per pound, but in 1883 a very small quantity
which was brought in sold at 10 cents per pound. This was probably the
last buffalo pemmican made. H. M. Robinson states that in 1878 pemmican
was worth 1s. 3d. per pound.

The manufacture of pemmican, as performed by the Red River half-breeds,
was thus described by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt, a Catholic priest, who once
accompanied one of the great buffalo-hunting expeditions:[45]

[Note 45: Schoolcraft's History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian
Tribes, iv, p. 107.]

"Other portions which are destined to be made into pimikehigan, or
pemmican, are exposed to an ardent heat, and thus become brittle and
easily reducible to small particles by the use of a flail, the
buffalo-hide answering the purpose of a threshing-floor. The fat or
tallow, being cut up and melted in large kettles of sheet iron, is
poured upon this pounded meat, and the whole mass is worked together
with shovels until it is well amalgamated, when it is pressed, while
still warm, into bags made of buffalo skin, which are strongly sewed up,
and the mixture gradually cools and becomes almost as hard as a rock. If
the fat used in this process is that taken from the parts containing the
udder, the meat is called fine pemmican. In some cases, dried fruits,
such as the prairie pear and cherry, are intermixed, which forms what is
called seed pemmican. Tho lovers of good eating judge the first
described to be very palatable; the second, better; the third,
excellent. A taurean of pemmican weighs from 100 to 110 pounds. Some
idea may be formed of the immense destruction of buffalo by these people
when it is stated that a whole cow yields one-half a bag of pemmican and
three fourths of a bundle of dried meat; so that the most economical
calculate that from eight to ten cows are required for the load of a
single vehicle."

It is quite evident from the testimony of disinterested travelers that
ordinary pemmican was not very palatable to one unaccustomed to it as a
regular article of food. To the natives, however, especially the
Canadian _voyageur_, it formed one of the most valuable food products of
the country, and it is said that the demand for it was generally greater
than the supply.

_Dried, or "jerked" meat._--The most popular and universal method of
curing buffalo meat was to cut it into thin flakes, an inch or less in
thickness and of indefinite length, and without salting it in the least
to hang it over poles, ropes, wicker-frames, or even clumps of standing
sage brush, and let it dry in the sun. This process yielded the famous
"jerked" meat so common throughout the West in the early days, from the
Rio Grande to the Saskatchewan. Father Belcourt thus described the
curing process as it was practiced by the half-breeds and Indians of the
Northwest:

"The meat, when taken to camp, is cut by the women into long strips
about a quarter of an inch thick, which are hung upon the lattice-work
prepared for that purpose to dry. This lattice-work is formed of small
pieces of wood, placed horizontally, transversely, and equidistant from
each other, not unlike an immense gridiron, and is supported by wooden
uprights (trepieds). In a few days the meat is thoroughly desiccated,
when it is bent into proper lengths and tied into bundles of 60 or 70
pounds weight. This is called dried meat (viande seche). To make the
hide into parchment (so called) it is stretched on a frame, and then
scraped on the inside with a piece of sharpened bone and on the outside
with a small but sharp-curved iron, proper to remove the hair. This is
considered, likewise, the appropriate labor of women. The men break the
bones, which are boiled in water to extract the marrow to be used for
frying and other culinary purposes. The oil is then poured into the
bladder of the animal, which contains, when filled, about 12 pounds,
being the yield of the marrow-bones of two buffaloes."

In the Northwest Territories dried meat, which formerly sold at 2_d._
per pound, was worth in 1878 10_d._ per pound.

Although I have myself prepared quite a quantity of jerked buffalo meat,
I never learned to like it. Owing to the absence of salt in its curing,
the dried meat when pounded and made into a stew has a "far away" taste
which continually reminds one of hoofs and horns. For all that, and
despite its resemblance in flavor to Liebig's Extract of Beef, it is
quite good, and better to the taste than ordinary pemmican.

The Indians formerly cured great quantities of buffalo meat in this
way--in summer, of course, for use in winter--but the advent of that
popular institution called "Government beef" long ago rendered it
unnecessary for the noble red man to exert his squaw in that once
honorable field of labor.

During the existence of the buffalo herds a few thrifty and enterprising
white men made a business of killing buffaloes in summer and drying the
meat in bulk, in the same manner which to-day produces our popular
"dried beef." Mr. Allen states that "a single hunter at Hays City
shipped annually for some years several hundred barrels thus prepared,
which the consumers probably bought for ordinary beef."

_Uses of bison's hair._--Numerous attempts have been made to utilize the
woolly hair of the bison in the manufacture of textile fabrics. As early
as 1729 Col. William Byrd records the fact that garments were made of
this material, as follows:

"The Hair growing upon his Head and Neck is long and Shagged, and so
Soft that it will spin into Thread not unlike Mohair, and might be wove
into a sort of Camlet. Some People have Stockings knit of it, that would
have served an Israelite during his forty Years march thro' the
Wilderness."[46]

[Note 46: Westover MSS., i, p. 172.]

In 1637 Thomas Morton published, in his "New English Canaan," p. 98,[47]
the following reference to the Indians who live on the southern shore of
Lake Erocoise, supposed to be Lake Ontario:

[Note 47: Quoted by Professor Allen, "American Bisons," p. 107.]

"These Beasts [buffaloes, undoubtedly] are of the bignesse of a Cowe,
their flesh being very good foode, their hides good lether, their
fleeces very usefull, being a kind of wolle, as fine as the wolle of the
Beaver, and the Salvages doe make garments thereof."

Professor Allen quotes a number of authorities who have recorded
statements in regard to the manufacture of belts, garters, scarfs,
sacks, etc., from buffalo wool by various tribes of Indians.[48] He also
calls attention to the only determined efforts ever made by white men on
a liberal scale for the utilization of buffalo "wool" and its
manufacture into cloth, an account of which appears in Ross's "Red River
Settlement," pp. 69-72. In 1821 some of the more enterprising of the Red
River (British) colonists conceived the idea of making fortunes out of
the manufacture of woolen goods from the fleece of the buffalo, and for
that purpose organized the Buffalo Wool Company, the principal object of
which was declared to be "to provide a substitute for wool, which
substitute was to be the wool of the wild buffalo, which was to be
collected in the plains and manufactured both for the use of the
colonists and for export." A large number of skilled workmen of various
kinds were procured from England, and also a plant of machinery and
materials. When too late, it was found that the supply of buffalo wool
obtainable was utterly insufficient, the raw wool costing the company
1_s._ 6_d._ per pound, and cloth which it cost the company £2 10_s._
per yard to produce was worth only 4_s._ 6_d._ per yard in England. The
historian states that universal drunkenness on the part of all concerned
aided very materially in bringing about the total failure of the
enterprise in a very short time.

[Note 48: The American Bison, p. 197.]

While it is possible to manufacture the fine, woolly fur of the bison
into cloth or knitted garments, provided a sufficient supply of the raw
material could be obtained (which is and always has been impossible),
nothing could be more visionary than an attempt to thus produce salable
garments at a profit.

Articles of wearing apparel made of buffalo's hair are interesting as
curiosities, for their rarity makes them so, but that is the only end
they can ever serve so long as there is a sheep living.

In the National Museum, in the section of animal products, there is
displayed a pair of stockings made in Canada from the finest buffalo
wool, from the body of the animal. They are thick, heavy, and full of
the coarse, straight hairs, which it seems can never be entirely
separated from the fine wool. In general texture they are as coarse as
the coarsest sheep's wool would produce.

With the above are also displayed a rope-like lariat, made by the
Comanche Indians, and a smaller braided lasso, seemingly a sample more
than a full-grown lariat, made by the Otoe Indians of Nebraska. Both of
the above are made of the long, dark-brown hair of the head and
shoulders, and in spite of the fact that they have been twisted as hard
as possible, the ends of the hairs protrude so persistently that the
surface of each rope is extremely hairy.

_Buffalo chips._--Last, but by no means least in value to the traveler
on the treeless plains, are the droppings of the buffalo, universally
known as "buffalo chips." When over one year old and thoroughly dry,
this material makes excellent fuel. Usually it occurs only where
fire-wood is unobtainable, and thousands of frontiersmen have a million
times found it of priceless value. When dry, it catches easily, burns
readily, and makes a hot fire with but very little smoke, although it is
rapidly consumed. Although not as good for a fire as even the poorest
timber it is infinitely better than sage-brush, which, in the absence of
chips, is often the traveler's last resort.

It usually happens that chips are most-abundant in the sheltered
creek-bottoms and near the water-holes, the very situations which
travelers naturally select for their camps. In these spots the herds
have gathered either for shelter in winter or for water in summer, and
remained in a body for some hours. And now, when the cowboy on the
round-up, the surveyor, or hunter, who must camp out, pitches his tent
in the grassy coulée or narrow creek-bottom, his first care is to start
out with his largest gunning bag to "rustle some buffalo chips" for a
campfire. He, at least, when he returns well laden with the spoil of his
humble chase, still has good reason to remember the departed herd with
feelings of gratitude. Thus even the last remains of this most useful
animal are utilized by man in providing for his own imperative wants.




IX. THE PRESENT VALUE OF THE BISON TO CATTLE-GROWERS.


_The bison in captivity and domestication._--Almost from time immemorial
it has been known that the American bison takes kindly to captivity,
herds contentedly with domestic cattle, and crosses with them with the
utmost readiness. It was formerly believed, and indeed the tradition
prevails even now to quite an extent, that on account of the hump on the
shoulders a domestic cow could not give birth to a half-breed calf. This
belief is entirely without foundation, and is due to theories rather
than facts.

Numerous experiments in buffalo breeding have been made, and the subject
is far from being a new one. As early as 1701 the Huguenot settlers at
Manikintown, on the James River, a few miles above Richmond, began to
domesticate buffaloes. It is also a matter of historical record that in
1786, or thereabouts, buffaloes were domesticated and bred in captivity
in Virginia, and Albert Gallatin states that in some of the northwestern
counties the mixed breed was quite common. In 1815 a series of elaborate
and valuable experiments in cross-breeding the buffalo and domestic
cattle was begun by Mr. Robert Wickliffe, of Lexington, Ky., and
continued by him for upwards of thirty years.[49]

[Note 49: For a full account of Mr. Wickliffe's experiments, written
by himself, see Audubon and Bachman's "Quadrupeds of North America,"
vol. ii, pp. 52-54.]

Quite recently the buffalo-breeding operations of Mr. S. L. Bedson, of
Stony Mountain, Manitoba, and Mr. C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kans.,
have attracted much attention, particularly for the reason that the
efforts of both these gentlemen have been directed toward the practical
improvement of the present breeds of range cattle. For this reason the
importance of the work in which they are engaged can hardly be
overestimated, and the results already obtained by Mr. Bedson, whose
experiments antedate those of Mr. Jones by several years, are of the
greatest interest to western cattle-growers. Indeed, unless the stock of
pure-blood buffaloes now remaining proves insufficient for the purpose,
I fully believe that we will gradually see a great change wrought in the
character of western cattle by the introduction of a strain of buffalo
blood.

The experiments which have been made thus far prove conclusively that--

(1) The male bison crosses readily with the opposite sex of domestic
cattle, but a buffalo cow has never been known to produce a half-breed
calf.

(2) The domestic cow produces a half-breed calf successfully.

(3) The progeny of the two species is fertile to any extent, yielding
half-breeds, quarter, three-quarter breeds, and so on.

(4) The bison breeds in captivity with perfect regularity and success.

_Need of an improvement in range cattle._--Ever since the earliest days
of cattle-ranching in the West, stockmen have had it in their power to
produce a breed which would equal in beef-bearing qualities the best
breeds to be found upon the plains, and be so much better calculated to
survive the hardships of winter, that their annual losses would have
been very greatly reduced. Whenever there is an unusually severe winter,
such as comes about three times in every decade, if not even oftener,
range cattle perish by thousands. It is an absolute impossibility for
every ranchman who owns several thousand, or even several hundred, head
of cattle to provide hay for them, even during the severest portion of
the winter season, and consequently the cattle must depend wholly upon
their own resources. When the winter is reasonably mild, and the snows
never very deep, nor lying too long at a time on the ground, the cattle
live through the winter with very satisfactory success. Thanks to the
wind, it usually happens that the falling snow is blown off the ridges
as fast as it falls, leaving the grass sufficiently uncovered for the
cattle to feed upon it. If the snow-fall is universal, but not more than
a few inches in depth, the cattle paw through it here and there, and eke
out a subsistence, on quarter rations it may be, until a friendly
chinook wind sets in from the southwest and dissolves the snow as if by
magic in a few hours' time.

But when a deep snow comes, and lies on the ground persistently, week in
and week out, when the warmth of the sun softens and moistens its
surface sufficiently for a returning cold wave to freeze it into a hard
crust, forming a universal wall of ice between the luckless steer and
his only food, the cattle starve and freeze in immense numbers. Being
totally unfitted by nature to survive such unnatural conditions, it is
not strange that they succumb.

Under present conditions the stockman simply stakes his cattle against
the winter elements and takes his chances on the results, which are
governed by circumstances wholly beyond his control. The losses of the
fearful winter of 1886-'87 will probably never be forgotten by the
cattlemen of the great Western grazing ground. In many portions of
Montana and Wyoming the cattlemen admitted a loss of 50 per cent of
their cattle, and in some localities the loss was still greater. The
same conditions are liable to prevail next winter, or any succeeding
winter, and we may yet see more than half the range cattle in the West
perish in a single month.

Yet all this time the cattlemen have had it in their power, by the
easiest and simplest method in the world, to introduce a strain of hardy
native blood in their stock which would have made it capable of
successfully resisting a much greater degree of hunger and cold. It is
really surprising that the desirability of cross-breeding the buffalo
and domestic cattle should for so long a time have been either
overlooked or disregarded. While cattle-growers generally have shown the
greatest enterprise in producing special breeds for milk, for butter, or
for beef, cattle with short horns and cattle with no horns at all, only
two or three men have had the enterprise to try to produce a breed
particularly hardy and capable.

A buffalo can weather storms and outlive hunger and cold which would
kill any domestic steer that ever lived. When nature placed him on the
treeless and blizzard-swept plains, she left him well equipped to
survive whatever natural conditions he would have to encounter. The most
striking feature of his entire _tout ensemble_ is his magnificent suit
of hair and fur combined, the warmest covering possessed by any
quadruped save the musk-ox. The head, neck, and fore quarters are
clothed with hide and hair so thick as to be almost, if not entirely,
impervious to cold. The hair on the body and hind quarters is long,
fine, very thick, and of that peculiar woolly quality which constitutes
the best possible protection against cold. Let him who doubts the warmth
of a good buffalo robe try to weather a blizzard with something else,
and then try the robe. The very form of the buffalo--short, thick legs,
and head hung very near the ground--suggests most forcibly a special
fitness to wrestle with mother earth for a living, snow or no snow. A
buffalo will flounder for days through deep snow-drifts without a morsel
of food, and survive where the best range steer would literally freeze
on foot, bolt upright, as hundreds did in the winter of 1886-'87. While
range cattle turn tail to a blizzard and drift helplessly, the buffalo
faces it every time, and remains master of the situation.

It has for years been a surprise to me that Western stockmen have not
seized upon the opportunity presented by the presence of the buffalo to
improve the character of their cattle. Now that there are no longer any
buffalo calves to be had on the plains for the trouble of catching them,
and the few domesticated buffaloes that remain are worth fabulous
prices, we may expect to see a great deal of interest manifested in this
subject, and some costly efforts made to atone for previous lack of
forethought.

_The character of the buffalo-domestic hybrid._--The subjoined
illustration from a photograph kindly furnished by Mr. C. J. Jones,
represents a ten months' old half-breed calf (male), the product of a
buffalo bull and domestic cow. The prepotency of the sire is apparent at
the first glance, and to so marked an extent that the illustration would
pass muster anywhere as having been drawn from a full-blood buffalo. The
head, neck, and hump, and the long woolly hair that covers them,
proclaim the buffalo in every line. Excepting that the hair on the
shoulders (below the hump) is of the same length as that on the body and
hind quarters, there is, so far as one can judge from an excellent
photograph, no difference whatever observable between this lusty young
half-breed and a full blood buffalo calf of the same age and sex. Mr.
Jones describes the color of this animal as "iron-gray," and remarks:
"You will see how even the fur is, being as long on the hind parts as on
the shoulders and neck, very much unlike the buffalo, which is so shaggy
about the shoulders and so thin farther back." Upon this point it is to
be remarked that the hair on the body of a yearling or two year-old
buffalo is always very much longer in proportion to the hair on the
forward parts than it is later in life, and while the shoulder hair is
always decidedly longer than that back of it, during the first two years
the contrast is by no means so very great. A reference to the memoranda
of hair measurements already given will afford precise data on this
point.

In regard to half-breed calves, Mr. Bedson states in a private letter
that "the hump does not appear until several months after birth."

Altogether, the male calf described above so strongly resembles a
pure-blood buffalo as to be generally mistaken for one; the form of the
adult half-blood cow promptly proclaims her origin. The accompanying
plate, also from a photograph supplied by Mr. Jones, accurately
represents a half-breed cow, six years old, weighing about 1,800 pounds.
Her body is very noticeably larger in proportion than that of the cow
buffalo, her pelvis much heavier, broader, and more cow-like, therein
being a decided improvement upon the small and weak hind quarters of the
wild species. The hump is quite noticeable, but is not nearly so high as
in the pure buffalo cow. The hair on the fore quarters, neck, and head
is decidedly shorter, especially on the head; the frontlet and chin
beard being conspicuously lacking. The tufts of long, coarse, black hair
which clothe the fore-arm of the buffalo cow are almost absent, but
apparently the hair on the body and hind quarters has lost but little,
if any, of its length, density, and fine, furry quality. The horns are
decidedly cow-like in their size, length, and curvature.

[Illustration: HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) CALF.--HERD OF C. J. JONES,
GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]

Regarding the general character of the half-breed buffalo, and his herd
in general, Mr. Bedson writes me as follows, in a letter dated September
12, 1888:

"The nucleus of my herd consisted of a young buffalo bull and four
heifer calves, which I purchased in 1877, and the increase from these
few has been most rapid, as will be shown by a tabular statement farther
on.

"Success with the breeding of the pure buffalo was followed by
experiments in crossing with the domestic animal. This crossing has
generally been between a buffalo bull and an ordinary cow, and with the
most encouraging results, since it had been contended by many that
although the cow might breed a calf from the buffalo, yet it would be at
the expense of her life, owing to the hump on a buffalo's shoulder; but
this hump does not appear until several months after birth. This has
been proved a fallacy respecting _this herd_ at least, for calving has
been attended with no greater percentage of losses than would be
experienced in ranching with the ordinary cattle. Buffalo cows and
crosses have dropped calves at as low a temperature as 20° below zero,
and the calves were sturdy and healthy.

"The half breed resulting from the cross as above mentioned has been
again crossed with the thoroughbred buffalo bull, producing a three
quarter breed animal closely resembling the buffalo, the head and robe
being quite equal, if not superior. The half-breeds are very prolific.
The cows drop a calf annually. They are also very hardy indeed, as they
take the instinct of the buffalo during the blizzards and storms, and do
not drift like native cattle. They remain upon the open prairie during
our severest winters, while the thermometer ranges from 30 to 40 degrees
below zero, with little or no food except what they rustled on the
prairie, and no shelter at all. In nearly all the ranching parts of
North America foddering and housing of cattle is imperative in a more or
less degree,[50] creating an item of expense felt by all interested in
cattle-raising; but the buffalo [half]breed retains all its native
hardihood, needs no housing, forages in the deepest snows for its own
food, yet becomes easily domesticated, and consequently needs but little
herding. Therefore the progeny of the buffalo is easily reared, cheaply
fed, and requires no housing in winter; three very essential points in
stock-raising.

[Note 50: On nearly all the great cattle ranches of the United States
it is absolutely impossible, and is not even attempted.--W. T. H.]

"They are always in good order, and I consider the meat of the
half-breed much preferable to domestic animals, while the robe is very
fine indeed, the fur being evened up on the hind parts, the same as on
the shoulders. During the history of the herd, accident and other causes
have compelled the slaughtering of one or two, and in these instances
the carcasses have sold for 18 cents per pound; the hides in their
dressed state for $50 to $75 each. A half-breed buffalo ox (four years
old, crossed with buffalo bull and Durham cow) was killed last winter,
and weighed 1,280 pounds dressed beef. One pure buffalo bull now in my
herd weighs fully 2,000 pounds, and a [half]breed bull 1,700 to 1,800
pounds.

"The three-quarter breed is an enormous animal in size, and has an extra
good robe, which will readily bring $40 to $50 in any market where there
is a demand for robes. They are also very prolific, and I consider them
the coming cattle for our range cattle for the Northern climate, while
the half and quarter breeds will be the animals for the more Southern
district. The half and three-quarter breed cows, when really matured,
will weigh from 1,400 to 1,800 pounds.

"I have never crossed them except with a common grade of cows, while I
believe a cross with the Galloways would produce the handsomest robe
ever handled, and make the best range cattle in the world. I have not
had time to give my attention to my herd, more than to let them range on
the prairies at will. By proper care great results can be accomplished."

Hon. C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kans., whose years of experience with
the buffalo, both as old-time hunter, catcher, and breeder, has earned
for him the sobriquet of "Buffalo Jones," five years ago became deeply
interested in the question of improving range cattle by crossing with
the buffalo. With characteristic Western energy he has pursued the
subject from that time until the present, having made five trips to the
range of the only buffaloes remaining from the great southern herd, and
captured sixty-eight buffalo calves and eleven adult cows with which to
start a herd. In a short article published in the Farmers' Review
(Chicago, August 22, 1888), Mr. Jones gives his views on the value of
the buffalo in cross-breeding as follows:

"In all my meanderings I have not found a place but I could count more
carcasses [of cattle] than living animals. Who has not ridden over some
of the Western railways and counted dead cattle by the thousands? The
great question is, Where can we get a race of cattle that will stand
blizzards, and endure the drifting snow, and will not be driven with the
storms against the railroad fences and pasture fences, there to perish
for the want of nerve to face the northern winds for a few miles, to
where the winter grasses could be had in abundance? Realizing these
facts, both from observation and pocket, we pulled on our 'thinking
cap,' and these points came vividly to our mind:

"(1) We want an animal that is hardy.

"(2) We want an animal with nerve and endurance.

"(3) We want an animal that faces the blizzards and endures the storms.

"(4) We want an animal that will rustle the prairies, and not yield to
discouragement.

"(5) We want an animal that will fill the above bill, and make good
beef and plenty of it.

[Illustration: HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) COW.--HERD OF C. J. JONES,
GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]

"All the points above could easily be found in the buffalo, excepting
the fifth, and even that is more than filled as to the quality, but not
in quantity. Where is the 'old timer' who has not had a cut from the
hump or sirloin of a fat buffalo cow in the fall of the year, and where
is the one who will not make affidavit that it was the best meat he ever
ate? Yes, the fat was very rich, equal to the marrow from the bone of
domestic cattle. * * *

"The great question remained unsolved as to the quantity of meat from
the buffalo. I finally heard of a half-breed buffalo in Colorado, and
immediately set out to find it. I traveled at least 1,000 miles to find
it, and found a five-year-old half-breed cow that had been bred to
domestic bulls and had brought forth two calves--a yearling and a
sucking calf that gave promise of great results.

"The cow had never been fed, but depended altogether on the range, and
when I saw her, in the fall of 1883. I estimated her weight at 1,800
pounds. She was a brindle, and had a handsome robe even in September;
she had as good hind quarters as ordinary cattle; her foreparts were
heavy and resembled the buffalo, yet not near so much of the hump. The
offspring showed but very little of the buffalo, yet they possessed a
woolly coat, which showed clearly that they were more than domestic
cattle. * * *

"What we can rely on by having one-fourth, one-half, and three-fourths
breeds might be analyzed as follows:

"We can depend upon a race of cattle unequaled in the world for
hardiness and durability; a good meat-bearing animal; the best and only
fur-bearing animal of the bovine race; the animal always found in a
storm where it is overtaken by it; a race of cattle so clannish as never
to separate and go astray; the animal that can always have free range,
as they exist where no other animal can live; the animal that can water
every third day and keep fat, ranging from 20 to 30 miles from water; in
fact, they are the perfect animal for the plains of North America.
One-fourth breeds for Texas, one-half breeds for Colorado and Kansas,
and three-fourths breeds for more northern country, is what will soon be
sought after more than any living animal. Then we will never be
confronted with dead carcarsses from starvation, exhaustion, and lack of
nerve, as in years gone by."

_The bison as a beast of burden._--On account of the abundance of horses
for all purposes throughout the entire country, oxen are so seldom used
they almost constitute a curiosity. There never has existed a necessity
to break buffaloes to the yoke and work them like domestic oxen, and so
few experiments have been made in this direction that reliable data on
this subject is almost wholly wanting. While at Miles City, Mont., I
heard of a German "granger" who worked a small farm in the Tongue River
Valley, and who once had a pair of cow buffaloes trained to the yoke.
It was said that they were strong, rapid walkers, and capable of
performing as much work as the best domestic oxen, but they were at
times so uncontrollably headstrong and obstinate as to greatly detract
from their usefulness. The particular event of their career on which
their historian dwelt with special interest occurred when their owner
was hauling a load of potatoes to town with them. In the course of the
long drive the buffaloes grew very thirsty, and upon coming within sight
of the water in the river they started for it in a straight course. The
shouts and blows of the driver only served to hasten their speed, and
presently, when they reached the edge of the high bank, they plunged
down it without the slightest hesitation, wagon, potatoes, and all, to
the loss of everything except themselves and the drink they went after!

Mr. Robert Wickliffe states that trained buffaloes make satisfactory
oxen. "I have broken them to the yoke, and found them capable of making
excellent oxen; and for drawing wagons, carts, or other heavily laden
vehicles on long journeys they would, I think, be greatly preferable to
the common ox."

It seems probable that, in the absence of horses, the buffalo would make
a much more speedy and enduring draught animal than the domestic ox,
although it is to be doubted whether he would be as strong. His weaker
pelvis and hind quarters would surely count against him under certain
circumstances, but for some purposes his superior speed and endurance
would more than counterbalance that defect.

BISON HERDS AND INDIVIDUALS IN CAPTIVITY AND DOMESTICATION, JANUARY 1,
1889.

_Herd of Mr. S. L. Bedson, Stony Mountain, Manitoba._--In 1877 Mr.
Bedson purchased 5 buffalo calves, 1 bull, and 4 heifers, for which he
paid $1,000. In 1888 his herd consisted of 23 full-blood bulls, 35 cows,
3 half-breed cows, 5 half-breed bulls, and 17 calves, mixed and
pure;[51] making a total of 83 head. These were all produced from the
original 5, no purchases having been made, nor any additions made in any
other way. Besides the 83 head constituting the herd when it was sold, 5
were killed and 9 given away, which would otherwise make a total of 97
head produced since 1877. In November, 1888, this entire herd was
purchased, for $50,000, by Mr. C. J. Jones, and added to the already
large herd owned by that gentleman in Kansas.

[Note 51: In summing up the total number of buffaloes and mixed-breeds
now alive in captivity, I have been obliged to strike an average on this
lot of calves "mixed and pure," and have counted twelve as being of pure
breed and five mixed, which I have reason to believe is very near the
truth.]

[Illustration: YOUNG HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) BULL.--HERD OF C. J.
JONES, GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]

_Herd of Mr. C. J. Jones, Garden City, Kans._--Mr. Jones's original herd
of 57 buffaloes constitute a living testimonial to his individual
enterprise, and to his courage, endurance, and skill in the chase. The
majority of the individuals composing the herd he himself ran down,
lassoed, and tied with his own hands. For the last five years Mr. Jones
has made an annual trip, in June, to the uninhabited "panhandle" of
Texas, to capture calves out of the small herd of from one hundred to
two hundred head which represented the last remnant of the great
southern herd. Each of these expeditious involved a very considerable
outlay in money, an elaborate "outfit" of men, horses, vehicles, camp
equipage, and lastly, but most important of all, a herd of a dozen fresh
milch cows to nourish the captured calves and keep them from dying of
starvation and thirst. The region visited was fearfully barren, almost
without water, and to penetrate it was always attended by great
hardship. The buffaloes were difficult to find, but the ground was good
for running, being chiefly level plains, and the superior speed of the
running horses always enabled the hunters to overtake a herd whenever
one was sighted, and to "cut out" and lasso two, three, or four of its
calves. The degree of skill and daring displayed in these several
expeditions are worthy of the highest admiration, and completely surpass
anything I have ever seen or read of being accomplished in connection
with hunting, or the capture of live game. The latest feat of Mr. Jones
and his party comes the nearest to being incredible. During the month of
May, 1888, they not only captured seven calves, but also _eleven adult
cows_, of which some were lassoed in full career on the prairie, thrown,
tied, and hobbled! The majority, however, were actually "rounded up,"
herded, and held in control until a bunch of tame buffaloes was driven
down to meet them, so that it would thus be possible to drive all
together to a ranch. This brilliant feat can only be appreciated as it
deserves by those who have lately hunted buffalo, and learned by dear
experience the extent of their wariness, and the difficulties, to say
nothing of the dangers, inseparably connected with their pursuit.

The result of each of Mr. Jones's five expeditions is as follows: In
1884 no calves found; 1885, 11 calves captured, 5 died, 6 survived;
1886, 14 calves captured, 7 died, 7 survived; 1887, 36 calves captured,
6 died, 30 survived; 1888, 7 calves captured, all survived; 1888, 11 old
cows captured, all survived. Total, 79 captures, 18 losses, 57
survivors.

The census of the herd is exactly as follows: Adult cows, 11; three-year
olds, 7, of which 2 are males and 5 females; two-year olds, 4, of which
all are males; yearling, 28, of which 15 are males and 13 females;
calves, 7, of which 3 are males and 4 females. Total herd, 57; 24 males
and 33 females. To this, Mr. Jones's original herd, must now be added
the entire herd formerly owned by Mr. Bedson.

Respecting his breeding operations Mr. Jones writes: "My oldest [bull]
buffaloes are now three years old, and I am breeding one hundred
domestic cows to them this year. Am breeding the Galloway cows quite
extensively; also some Shorthorns, Herefords, and Texas cows. I expect
best results from the Galloways. If I can get the black luster of the
latter and the fur of a buffalo, I will have a robe that will bring more
money than we get for the average range steer."

In November, 1888, Mr. Jones purchased Mr. Bedson's entire herd, and in
the following mouth proceeded to ship a portion of it to Kansas City.
Thirty-three head were separated from the remainder of the herd on the
prairie near Stony Mountain, 12 miles from Winnipeg, and driven to the
railroad. Several old bulls broke away en route and ran back to the
herd, and when the remainder were finally corraled in the pens at the
stock-yards "they began to fight among themselves, and some fierce
encounters were waged between the old bulls. The younger cattle were
raised on the horns of their seniors, thrown in the air, and otherwise
gored." While on the way to St. Paul three of the half-breed buffaloes
were killed by their companions. On reaching Kansas City and unloading
the two cars, 13 head broke away from the large force of men that
attempted to manage them, stampeded through the city, and finally took
refuge in the low-lands along the river. In due time, however, all were
recaptured.

Since the acquisition of this northern herd and the subsequent press
comment that it has evoked, Mr. Jones has been almost overwhelmed with
letters of inquiry in regard to the whole subject of buffalo breeding,
and has found it necessary to print and distribute a circular giving
answers to the many inquiries that have been made.

_Herd of Mr. Charles Allard, Flathead Indian Reservation,
Montana._--This herd was visited in the autumn of 1888 by Mr. G. O.
Shields, of Chicago, who reports that it consists of thirty-five head of
pure-blood buffaloes, of which seven are calves of 1888, six are
yearlings, and six are two-year olds. Of the adult animals, four cows
and two bulls are each fourteen years old, "and the beards of the bulls
almost sweep the ground as they walk."

_Herd of Hon. W. F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill")._--The celebrated "Wild West
Show" has, ever since its organization, numbered amongst its leading
attractions a herd of live buffaloes of all ages. At present this herd
contains eighteen head, of which fourteen were originally purchased of
Mr. H. T. Groome, of Wichita, Kansas, and have made a journey to London
and back. As a proof of the indomitable persistence of the bison in
breeding under most unfavorable circumstances, the fact that four of the
members of this herd are calves which were born in 1888 in London, at
the American Exposition, is of considerable interest.

This herd is now (December, 1888) being wintered on General Beale's
farm, near the city of Washington. In 1886-'87, while the Wild West Show
was at Madison Square Garden, New York City, its entire herd of twenty
buffaloes was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia. It is to be greatly
feared that sooner or later in the course of its travels the present
herd will also disappear, either through disease or accident.

_Herd of Mr. Charles Goodnight, Clarendon, Texas._--Mr. Goodnight writes
that he has "been breeding buffaloes in a small way for the past ten
years," but without giving any particular attention to it. At present
his herd consists of thirteen head, of which two are three-year old
bulls and four are calves. There are seven cows of all ages, one of
which is a half-breed.

_Herd at the Zoological Society's Gardens, Philadelphia, Arthur E.
Brown, superintendent._--This institution is the fortunate possessor of
a small herd of ten buffaloes, of which four are males and six females.
Two are calves of 1877. In 1886 the Gardens sold an adult bull and cow
to Hon. W. F. Cody for $300.

_Herd at Bismarck Grove, Kansas, owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fé Railroad Company._--A small herd of buffaloes has for several years
past been kept at Bismarck Grove as an attraction to visitors. At
present it contains ten head, one of which is a very large bull, another
in a four-year-old bull, six are cows of various ages, and two are
two-year olds. In 1885 a large bull belonging to this herd grew so
vicious and dangerous that it was necessary to kill him.

The following interesting account of this herd was published in the
Kansas City Times of December 8, 1888:

"Thirteen years ago Colonel Stanton purchased a buffalo bull calf for $8
and two heifers for $25. The descendants of these three buffaloes now
found at Bismarck Grove, where all were born, number in all ten. There
were seventeen, but the rest have died, with the exception of one, which
was given away. They are kept in an inclosure containing about 30 acres
immediately adjoining the park, and there may be seen at any time. The
sight is one well worth a trip and the slight expense that may attach to
it, especially to one who has never seen the American bison in his
native state.

"The present herd includes two fine bull calves dropped last spring, two
heifers, five cows, and a bull six years old and as handsome as a
picture. The latter has been named Cleveland, after the colonel's
favorite Presidential candidate. The entire herd is in as fine condition
as any beef cattle, though they were never fed anything but hay and are
never given any shelter. In fact they don't take kindly to shelter, and
whether a blizzard is blowing, with the mercury 20 degrees below zero,
or the sun pouring down his scorching rays, with the thermometer 110
degrees above, they set their heads resolutely toward storm or sun and
take their medicine as if they liked it. Hon. W. F. Cody, "Buffalo
Bill," tried to buy the whole herd two years ago to take to Europe with
his Wild West Show, but they were not for sale at his own figures, and,
indeed, there is no anxiety to dispose of them at any figures. The
railroad company has been glad to furnish them pasturage for the sake of
adding to the attractions of the park, in which there are also
forty-three head of deer, including two as fine bucks as ever trotted
over the national deer trail toward the salt-licks in northern Utah.

"While the bison at Bismark Grove are splendid specimens of their class,
"Cleveland" is decidedly the pride of the herd, and as grand a creature
as ever trod the soil of Kansas on four legs. He is just six years old
and is a perfect specimen of the kings of the plains. There is royal
blood in his veins, and his coat is finer than the imperial purple. It
is not possible to get at him to measure his stature and weight. He must
weigh fully 3,000 pounds, and it is doubtful if there is to-day living
on the face of the earth a handsomer buffalo bull than he. "Cleveland's"
disposition is not so ugly as old Barney's was, but at certain seasons
he is very wild, and there is no one venturesome enough to go into the
inclosure. It is then not altogether safe to even look over the high and
heavy board fence at him, for he is likely to make a run for the
visitor, as the numerous holes in the fence where he has knocked off the
boards will testify."

_Herd of Mr. Frederick Dupree, Cheyenne Indian Agency, near Fort
Bennett, Dakota._--This herd contains at present nine pure-blood
buffaloes, five of which are cows and seven mixed bloods. Of the former,
there are two adult bulls and four adult cows. Of the mixed blood
animals, six are half-breeds and one a quarter-breed buffalo.

Mr. Dupree obtained the nucleus of his herd in 1882, at which time he
captured five wild calves about 100 miles west of Fort Bennett. Of
these, two died after two months of captivity and a third was killed by
an Indian in 1885.

Mr. D. F. Carlin, of the Indian service, at Fort Bennett, has kindly
furnished me the following information respecting this herd, under date
of November 1, 1888:

"The animals composing this herd are all in fine condition and are quite
tame. They keep by themselves most of the time, except the oldest bull
(six years old), who seems to appreciate the company of domestic cattle
more than that of his own family. Mr. Dupree has kept one half-breed
bull as an experiment; he thinks it will produce a hardy class of
cattle. His half-breeds are all black, with one exception, and that is a
roan; but they are all built like the buffalo, and when young they grunt
more like a hog than like a calf, the same as a full-blood buffalo.

"Mr. Dupree has never lost a [domestic] cow in giving birth to a
half-breed calf, as was supposed by many people would be the case. There
have been no sales from this herd, although the owner has a standing
offer of $650 for a cow and bull. The cows are not for sale at any
price."

_Herd at Lincoln Park, Chicago, Mr. W. P. Walker, superintendent._--This
very interesting and handsomely-kept herd is composed of seven
individuals of the following character: One bull eight years old, one
bull four years old, two cows eight years old, two cows two years old in
the spring of 1888, and one female calf born in the spring of 1888.

_Zoological Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio._--This collection contains four
bison, an adult bull and cow, and one immature specimen.

_Dr. V. T. McGillicuddy, Rapid City, Dakota_, has a herd of four pure
buffaloes and one half-breed. Of the former, the two adults, a bull and
cow seven years old, were caught by Sioux Indians near the Black Hills
for the owner in the spring of 1882. The Indians drove two milch cows to
the range to nourish the calves when caught. These have produced two
calves, one of which, a bull, is now three years old, and the other is a
yearling heifer.

_Central Park Menagerie, New York, Dr. W. A. Conklin, director._--This
much-visited collection contains four bison, an adult bull and cow, a
two-year-old calf, and a yearling.

_Mr. John H. Starin, Glen Inland, near New York City._--There are four
buffaloes at this summer resort.

_The U. S. National Museum, Washington, District of Columbia._--The
collection of the department of living animals at this institution
contains two fine young buffaloes; a bull four years old in July, 1888,
and a cow three years old in May of the same year. These animals were
captured in western Nebraska, when they were calves, by H. R. Jackett,
of Ogalalla, and kept by him on his ranch until 1885. In April, 1888,
Hon. Eugene G. Blackford, of New York, purchased them of Mr. Frederick
D. Nowell, of North Platte, Nebraska, for $100 for the pair, and
presented them to the National Museum, in the hope that they might form
the nucleus of a herd to be owned and exhibited by the United States
Government in or near the city of Washington. The two animals were
received in Ogalalla by Mr. Joseph Palmer, of the National Museum, and
by him they were brought on to Washington in May, in fine condition.
Since their arrival they have been exhibited to the public in a
temporary inclosure on the Smithsonian Grounds, and have attracted much
attention.

_Mr. B. C. Winston, of Hamline, Minnesota_, owns a pair of buffaloes,
one of which, a young bull, was caught by him in western Dakota in the
spring of 1886, soon after its birth. The cow was purchased at Rosseau,
Dakota Territory, a year later, for $225.

_Mr. I. P. Butler, of Colorado, Texas_, is the owner of a young bull
buffalo and a half-breed calf.

_Mr. Jesse Huston, of Miles City, Montana_, owns a fine five-year-old
bull buffalo.

_Mr. L. F. Gardner, of Bellwood, Oregon_, is the owner of a large adult
bull.

_The Riverside Ranch Company, south of Mandan, Dakota_, owns a pair of
full-blood buffaloes.

_In Dakota_, in the hands of parties unknown, there are four full-blood
buffaloes.

_Mr. James R. Hitch, of Optima, Indian Territory_, has a pair of young
buffaloes, which he has offered for sale for $750.

_Mr. Joseph A. Hudson, of Estell, Nebraska_, owns a three-year-old bull
buffalo, which is for sale.

In other countries there are live specimens of _Bison americanus_
reported as follows: two at Belleview Gardens, Manchester, England; one
at the Zoological Gardens, London; one at Liverpool, England (purchased
of Hon. W. F. Cody in 1888); two at the Zoological Gardens, Dresden; one
at the Zoological Gardens, Calcutta.

+--------------------------------------------------+
|   _Statistics of full-blood buffaloes       |    |
|     in captivity January 1, 1889._          |    |
+---------------------------------------------+----+
|Number kept for breeding purposes            | 216|
|Number kept for exhibition                   |  40|
|                                             | ---|
|     Total pure-blood buffaloes in captivity | 256|
|Wild buffaloes under Government              |    |
|protection in the Yellowstone Park           | 200|
|Number of mixed-breed buffalo-domestics      |  40|
+--------------------------------------------------+

There are, without doubt, a few half-breeds in Manitoba of which I have
no account. It is probable there are also a very few more captive
buffaloes scattered singly here and there which will be heard of later,
but the total will be a very small number, I am sure.




PART II.--THE EXTERMINATION.




I. CAUSES OF THE EXTERMINATION.


The causes which led to the practical extinction (in a wild state, at
least) of the most economically valuable wild animal that ever inhabited
the American continent, are by no means obscure. It is well that we
should know precisely what they were, and by the sad fate of the buffalo
be warned in time against allowing similar causes to produce the same
results with our elk, antelope, deer, moose, caribou, mountain sheep,
mountain goat, walrus, and other animals. It will be doubly deplorable
if the remorseless slaughter we have witnessed during the last twenty
years carries with it no lessons for the future. A continuation of the
record we have lately made as wholesale game butchers will justify
posterity in dating us back with the mound-builders and cave-dwellers,
when man's only known function was to slay and eat.

The primary cause of the buffalo's extermination, and the one which
embraced all others, was the descent of civilization, with all its
elements of destructiveness, upon the whole of the country inhabited by
that animal. From the Great Slave Lake to the Rio Grande the home of the
buffalo was everywhere overrun by the man with a gun; and, as has ever
been the case, the wild creatures were gradually swept away, the largest
and most conspicuous forms being the first to go.

The secondary causes of the extermination of the buffalo may be
catalogued as follows:

(1) Man's reckless greed, his wanton destructiveness, and improvidence
in not husbanding such resources as come to him from the hand of nature
ready made.

(2) The total and utterly inexcusable absence of protective measures and
agencies on the part of the National Government and of the West States
and Territories.

(3) The fatal preference on the part of hunters generally, both white
and red, for the robe and flesh of the cow over that furnished by the
bull.

(4) The phenomenal stupidity of the animals themselves, and their
indifference to man.

(5) The perfection of modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting
fire-arms in general.

Each of these causes acted against the buffalo with its fall force, to
offset which there was _not even one_ restraining or preserving
influence, and it is not to be wondered at that the species went down
before them. Had any one of these conditions been eliminated the result
would have been reached far less quickly. Had the buffalo, for example,
possessed one-half the fighting qualities of the grizzly bear he would
have fared very differently, but his inoffensiveness and lack of courage
almost leads one to doubt the wisdom of the economy of nature so far as
it relates to him.




II. METHODS OF SLAUGHTER.


1. _The still-hunt._--Of all the deadly methods of buffalo slaughter,
the still-hunt was the deadliest. Of all the methods that were
unsportsmanlike, unfair, ignoble, and utterly reprehensible, this was in
every respect the lowest and the worst. Destitute of nearly every
element of the buoyant excitement and spice of danger that accompanied
genuine buffalo hunting on horseback, the still-hunt was mere butchery
of the tamest and yet most cruel kind. About it there was none of the
true excitement of the chase; but there was plenty of greedy eagerness
to "down" as many "head" as possible every day, just as there is in
every slaughter-house where the killers are paid so much per head.
Judging from all accounts, it was about as exciting and dangerous work
as it would be to go out now and shoot cattle on the Texas or Montana
ranges. The probabilities are, however, that shooting Texas cattle would
be the most dangerous; for, instead of running from a man on foot, as
the buffalo used to do, range cattle usually charge down upon him, from
motives of curiosity, perhaps, and not infrequently place his life in
considerable jeopardy.

The buffalo owes his extermination very largely to his own unparalleled
stupidity; for nothing else could by any possibility have enabled the
still-hunters to accomplish what they did in such an incredibly short
time. So long as the chase on horseback was the order of the day, it
ordinarily required the united efforts of from fifteen to twenty-five
hunters to kill a thousand buffalo in a single season; but a single
still-hunter, with a long-range breech-loader, who knew how to make a
"sneak" and get "a stand on a bunch," often succeeded in killing from
one to three thousand in one season by his own unaided efforts. Capt.
Jack Brydges, of Kansas, who was one of the first to begin the final
slaughter of the southern herd, killed, by contract, one thousand one
hundred and forty-two buffaloes in six weeks.

So long as the buffalo remained in large herds their numbers gave each
individual a feeling of dependence upon his fellows and of general
security from harm, even in the presence of strange phenomena which he
could not understand. When he heard a loud report and saw a little cloud
of white smoke rising from a gully, a clump of sage-brash, or the top of
a ridge, 200 yards away, he wondered what it meant, and held himself in
readiness to follow his leader in case she should run away. But when the
leader of the herd, usually the oldest cow, fell bleeding upon the
ground, and no other buffalo promptly assumed the leadership of the
herd, instead of acting independently and fleeing from the alarm, he
merely did as he saw the others do, and waited his turn to be shot.
Latterly, however, when the herds were totally broken up, when the few
survivors were scattered in every direction, and it became a case of
every buffalo for himself, they became wild and wary, ever ready to
start off at the slightest alarm, and run indefinitely. Had they shown
the same wariness seventeen years ago that the survivors have manifested
during the last three or four years, there would now be a hundred
thousand head alive instead of only about three hundred in a wild and
unprotected state.

Notwithstanding the merciless war that had been waged against the
buffalo for over a century by both whites and Indians, and the steady
decrease of its numbers, as well as its range, there were several
million head on foot, not only up to the completion of the Union Pacific
Railway, but as late as the year 1870. Up to that time the killing done
by white men had been chiefly for the sake of meat, the demand for robes
was moderate, and the Indians took annually less than one hundred
thousand for trading. Although half a million buffaloes were killed by
Indians, half-breeds, and whites, the natural increase was so very
considerable as to make it seem that the evil day of extermination was
yet far distant.

But by a coincidence which was fatal to the buffalo, with the building
of three lines of railway through the most populous buffalo country
there came a demand for robes and hides, backed up by an unlimited
supply of new and marvellously accurate breech-loading rifles and fixed
ammunition. And then followed a wild rush of hunters to the buffalo
country, eager to destroy as many head as possible in the shortest time.
For those greedy ones the chase on horseback was "too slow" and too
unfruitful. That was a retail method of killing, whereas they wanted to
kill by wholesale. From their point of view, the still-hunt or "sneak"
hunt was the method _par excellence_. If they could have obtained
Gatling guns with which to mow down a whole herd at a time, beyond a
doubt they would have gladly used them.

The still-hunt was seen at its very worst in the years 1871, 1872, and
1873, on the southern buffalo range, and ten years later at its best in
Montana, on the northern. Let us first consider it at its best, which in
principle was bad enough.

The great rise in the price of robes which followed the blotting out of
the great southern herd at once put buffalo-hunting on a much more
comfortable and respectable business basis in the North than it had ever
occupied in the South, where prices had all along been phenomenally low.

In Montana it was no uncommon thing for a hunter to invest from $1,000
to $2,000 in his "outfit" of horses, wagons, weapons, ammunition,
provisions, and sundries.

One of the men who accompanied the Smithsonian Expedition for Buffalo,
Mr. James McNaney, of Miles City, Montana, was an ex-buffalo banter, who
had spent three seasons on the northern range, killing buffalo for their
robes, and his standing as a hunter was of the best. A brief description
of his outfit and its work during its last season on the range
(1882-'83) may fairly be taken as a typical illustration of the life and
work of the still-hunter at its best. The only thing against it was the
extermination of the buffalo.

During the winters of 1880 and 1881 Mr. McNaney had served in Maxwell's
outfit as a hunter, working by the month, but his success in killing was
such that he decided to work the third year on his own account. Although
at that time only seventeen years of age, he took an elder brother as a
partner, and purchased an outfit in Miles City, of which the following
were the principal items: Two wagons, 2 four-horse teams, 2
saddle-horses, 2 wall-tents, 1 cook-stove with pipe, 1 40-90 Sharp's
rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-70 Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-120
Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 50 pounds gunpowder, 550 pounds lead,
4,500 primers, 600 brass shells, 4 sheets patch-paper, 60 Wilson
skinning knives, 3 butcher's steels, 1 portable grindstone, flour,
bacon, baking-powder, coffee, sugar, molasses, dried apples, canned
vegetables, beans, etc., in quantity.

The entire cost of the outfit was about $1,400. Two men were hired for
the season at $50 per month, and the party started from Miles City on
November 10, which was considered a very late start. The usual time of
setting out for the range was about October 1.

The outfit went by rail northeastward to Terry, and from thence across
country south and east about 100 miles, around the head of O'Fallon
Creek to the head of Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Little Missouri. A
good range was selected, without encroachment upon the domains of the
hunters already in the field, and the camp was made near the bank of the
creek, close to a supply of wood and water, and screened from distant
observation by a circle of hills and ridges. The two rectangular
wall-tents were set up end to end, with the cook-stove in the middle,
where the ends came together. In one tent the cooking and eating was
done, and the other contained the beds.

It was planned that the various members of the party should cook turn
about, a week at a time, but one of them soon developed such a rare and
conspicuous talent for bread-making and general cookery that he was
elected by acclamation to cook during the entire season. To the other
three members fell the hunting. Each man hunted separately from the
others, and skinned all the animals that his rifle brought down.

There were buffalo on the range when the hunters arrived, and the
killing began at once. At daylight the still-hunter sallied forth on
foot, carrying in his hand his huge Sharps rifle, weighing from 16 to 19
pounds, with from seventy-five to one hundred loaded cartridges in his
two belts or his pockets. At his side, depending from his belt, hung his
"hunter's companion," a flat leather scabbard, containing a ripping
knife, a skinning knife, and a butcher's steel upon which to sharpen
them. The total weight carried was very considerable, seldom less than
36 pounds, and often more.

Inasmuch as it was highly important to move camp as seldom as possible
in the course of a season's work, the hunter exercised the greatest
precaution in killing his game, and had ever before his mind the
necessity of doing his killing without frightening away the survivors.

With ten thousand buffaloes on their range, it was considered the height
of good luck to find a "bunch" of fifty head in a secluded "draw" or
hollow, where it was possible to "make a kill" without disturbing the
big herd.

The still-hunter usually went on foot, for when buffaloes became so
scarce as to make it necessary for him to ride his occupation was
practically gone. At the time I speak of, the hunter seldom had to walk
more than 3 miles from camp to find buffalo, in case there were any at
all on his range, and it was usually an advantage to be without a horse.
From the top of a ridge or high butte the country was carefully scanned,
and if several small herds were in sight the one easiest to approach was
selected as the one to attack. It was far better to find a herd lying
down or quietly grazing, or sheltering from a cold wind, than to find it
traveling, for while a hard run of a mile or two often enabled the
hunter to "head off" a moving herd and kill a certain number of animals
out of it, the net results were never half so satisfactory as with herds
absolutely at rest.

Having decided upon an attack, the hunter gets to leeward of his game,
and approaches it according to the nature of the ground. If it is in a
hollow, he secures a position at the top of the nearest ridge, as close
as he can get. If it is in a level "flat," he looks for a gully up which
he can skulk until within good rifle-shot. If there is no gully, he may
be obliged to crawl half a mile on his hands and knees, often through
snow or amongst beds of prickly pear, taking advantage of even such
scanty cover as sage-brush affords. Some Montana still-hunters adopted
the method of drawing a gunny-sack over the entire upper half of the
body, with holes cut for the eyes and arms, which simple but
unpicturesque arrangement often enabled the hunter to approach his
game much more easily and more closely than would otherwise have been
possible.

[Illustration: STILL-HUNTING BUFFALOES ON THE NORTHERN RANGE.
From a painting by J. H. Moser, in the National Museum.]

Having secured a position within from 100 to 250 yards of his game
(often the distance was much greater), the hunter secures a comfortable
rest for his huge rifle, all the time keeping his own person thoroughly
hidden from view, estimates the distance, carefully adjusts his sights,
and begins business. If the herd is moving, the animal in the lead is
the first one shot, close behind the fore leg and about a foot above the
brisket, which sends the ball through the lungs. If the herd is at rest,
the oldest cow is always supposed to be the leader, and she is the one
to kill first. The noise startles the buffaloes, they stare at the
little cloud of white smoke and feel inclined to run, but seeing their
leader hesitate they wait for her. She, when struck, gives a violent
start forward, but soon stops, and the blood begins to run from her
nostrils in two bright crimson streams. In a couple of minutes her body
sways unsteadily, she staggers, tries hard to keep her feet, but soon
gives a lurch sidewise and falls. Some of the other members of the herd
come around her and stare and sniff in wide-eyed wonder, and one of the
more wary starts to lead the herd away. But before she takes half a
dozen steps "bang!" goes the hidden rifle again, and her leadership is
ended forever. Her fall only increases the bewilderment of the survivors
over a proceeding which to them is strange and unaccountable, because
the danger is not visible. They cluster around the fallen ones, sniff at
the warm blood, bawl aloud in wonderment, and do everything but run
away.

The policy of the hunter is to not fire too rapidly, but to attend
closely to business, and every time a buffalo attempts to make off,
shoot it down. One shot per minute was a moderate rate of firing, but
under pressure of circumstances two per minute could be discharged with
deliberate precision. With the most accurate hunting rifle ever made, a
"dead rest," and a large mark practically motionless, it was no wonder
that nearly every shot meant a dead buffalo. The vital spot on a buffalo
which stands with its side to the hunter is about a foot in diameter,
and on a full-grown bull is considerably more. Under such conditions as
the above, which was called getting "a stand," the hunter nurses his
victims just as an angler plays a big fish with light tackle, and in the
most methodical manner murders them one by one, either until the last
one falls, his cartridges are all expended, or the stupid brutes come to
their senses and run away. Occasionally the poor fellow was troubled by
having his rifle get too hot to use, but if a snow-bank was at hand he
would thrust the weapon into it without ceremony to cool it off.

A success in getting a stand meant the slaughter of a good-sized herd. A
hunter whom I met in Montana, Mr. Harry Andrews, told me that he once
fired one hundred and fifteen shots from one spot and killed sixty-three
buffalo in less than an hour. The highest number Mr. McNaney ever knew
of being killed in one stand was ninety-one head, but Colonel Dodge
once counted one hundred and twelve carcasses of buffalo "inside of a
semicircle of 200 yards radius, all of which were killed by one man from
the same spot, and in less than three-quarters of an hour."

The "kill" being completed, the hunter then addressed himself to the
task of skinning his victims. The northern hunters were seldom guilty of
the reckless carelessness and lack of enterprise in the treatment of
robes which at one time was so prominent a feature of work on the
southern range. By the time white men began to hunt for robes on the
northern range, buffalo were becoming comparatively scarce, and robes
were worth from $2 to $4 each. The fur-buyers had taught the hunters,
with the potent argument of hard cash, that a robe carefully and neatly
taken off, stretched, and kept reasonably free from blood and dirt, was
worth more money in the market than one taken off in a slovenly manner,
and contrary to the nicer demands of the trade. After 1880, buffalo on
the northern range were skinned with considerable care, and amongst the
robe-hunters not one was allowed to become a loss when it was possible
to prevent it. Every full-sized cow robe was considered equal to $3.50
in hard cash, and treated accordingly. The hunter, or skinner, always
stretched every robe out on the ground to its fullest extent while it
was yet warm, and cut the initials of his employer in the thin
subcutaneous muscle which always adhered to the inside of the skin. A
warm skin is very elastic, and when stretched upon the ground the hair
holds it in shape until it either dries or freezes, and so retains its
full size. On the northern range skins were so valuable that many a
dispute arose between rival outfits over the ownership of a dead
buffalo, some of which produced serious results.

2. _The chase on horseback or "running buffalo."_--Next to the
still-hunt the method called "running buffalo" was the most fatal to the
race, and the one most universally practiced. To all hunters, save
greedy white men, the chase on horseback yielded spoil sufficient for
every need, and it also furnished sport of a superior kind--manly,
exhilarating, and well spiced with danger. Even the horses shared the
excitement and eagerness of their riders.

So long as the weapons of the Indian consisted only of the bow and arrow
and the spear, he was obliged to kill at close quarters or not at all.
And even when fire-arms were first placed in his hands their caliber was
so small, the charge so light, and the Indian himself so poor a marksman
at long range, that his best course was still to gallop alongside the
herd on his favorite "buffalo horse" and kill at the shortest possible
range. From all accounts, the Red River half-breeds, who hunted almost
exclusively with fire-arms, never dreamed of the deadly still hunt, but
always killed their game by "running" it.

In former times even the white men of the plains did the most of their
buffalo hunting on horseback, using the largest-sized Colt's revolver,
sometimes one in each hand, until the repeating-rifle made its
appearance, which in a great measure displaced the revolver in running
buffalo. But about that time began the mad warfare for "robes" and
"hides," and the only fair and sportsmanlike method of hunting was
declared too slow for the greedy buffalo-skinners.

Then came the cold-blooded butchery of the still-hunt. From that time on
the buffalo as a game animal steadily lost caste. It soon came to be
universally considered that there was no sport in hunting buffalo. True
enough of still-hunting, where the hunter sneaks up and shoots them down
one by one at such long range the report of his big rifle does not even
frighten them away. So far as sportsmanlike fairness is concerned, that
method was not one whit more elevated than killing game by poison.

Bat the chase on horseback was a different thing. Its successful
prosecution demanded a good horse, a bold rider, a firm seat, and
perfect familiarity with weapons. The excitement of it was intense, the
dangers not to be despised, and, above all, the buffalo had a fair show
for his life, or partially so, at least. The mode of attack is easily
described.

Whenever the hunters discovered a herd of buffalo, they usually got to
leeward of it and quietly rode forward in a body, or stretched out in a
regular skirmish line, behind the shelter of a knoll, perhaps, until
they had approached the herd as closely as could be done without
alarming it. Usually the unsuspecting animals, with a confidence due
more to their great numbers than anything else, would allow a party of
horsemen to approach within from 200 to 400 yards of their flankers, and
then they would start off on a slow trot. The hunters then put spurs to
their horses and dashed forward to overtake the herd as quickly as
possible. Once up with it, each hunter chooses the best animal within
his reach, chases him until his flying steed carries him close
alongside, and then the arrow or the bullet is sent into his vitals. The
fatal spot is from 12 to 18 inches in circumference, and lies
immediately back of the fore leg, with its lowest point on a line with
the elbow.

This, the true chase of the buffalo, was not only exciting, but
dangerous. It often happened that the hunter found himself surrounded by
the flying herd, and in a cloud of dust, so that neither man nor horse
could see the ground before them. Under such circumstances fatal
accidents to both men and horses were numerous. It was not an uncommon
thing for half-breeds to shoot each other in the excitement of the
chase; and, while now and then a wounded bull suddenly turned upon his
pursuer and overthrew him, the greatest number of casualties were from
falls.

Of the dangers involved in running buffalo Colonel Dodge writes as
follows:[52]

[Note 52: Plains of the Great West, p. 127.]

"The danger is not so much from the buffalo, which rarely makes an
effort to injure his pursuer, as from the fact that neither man nor
horse can see the ground, which may be rough and broken, or perforated
with prairie-dog or gopher holes. This danger is so imminent, that a man
who runs into a herd of buffalo may be said to take his life in his
hand. I have never known a man hurt by a buffalo in such a chase. I have
known of at least six killed, and a very great many more or less
injured, some very severely, by their horses falling with them."

On this point Catlin declares that to engage in running buffalo is "at
the hazard of every bone in one's body, to feel the fine and thrilling
exhilaration of the chase for a moment, and then as often to upbraid and
blame himself for his folly and imprudence."

Previous to my first experience in "running buffalo" I had entertained a
mortal dread of ever being called upon to ride a chase across a
prairie-dog town. The mouth of a prairie-dog's burrow is amply large to
receive the hoof of a horse, and the angle at which the hole descends
into the earth makes it just right for the leg of a running horse to
plunge into up to the knee and bring down both horse and rider
instantly; the former with a broken leg, to say the least of it. If the
rider sits loosely, and promptly resigns his seat, he will go flying
forward, as if thrown from a catapult, for 20 feet or so, perhaps to
escape with a few broken bones, and perhaps to have his neck broken, or
his skull fractured on the hard earth. If he sticks tightly to his
saddle, his horse is almost certain to fall upon him, and perhaps kill
him. Judge, then, my feelings when the first bunch of buffalo we started
headed straight across the largest prairie-dog town I had ever seen up
to that time. And not only was the ground honey-combed with gaping round
holes, but it was also crossed here and there by treacherous ditch-like
gullies, cut straight down into the earth to an uncertain depth, and so
narrow as to be invisible until it was almost time to leap across them.

But at such a time, with the game thundering along a few rods in
advance, the hunter thinks of little else except getting up to it. He
looks as far ahead as possible, and helps his horse to avoid dangers,
but to a great extent the horse must guide himself. The rider plies his
spurs and looks eagerly forward, almost feverish with excitement and
eagerness, but at the same time if he is wise he _expects_ a fall, and
holds himself in readiness to take the ground with as little damage as
he can.

Mr. Catlin gives a most graphic description of a hunting accident, which
may fairly be quoted in full as a type of many such. I must say that I
fully sympathize with M. Chardon in his estimate of the hardness of the
ground he fell upon, for I have a painful recollection of a fall I had
from which I arose with the settled conviction that the ground in
Montana is the hardest in the world! It seemed more like falling upon
cast-iron than prairie turf.

"I dashed along through the thundering mass as they swept away over the
plain, scarcely able to tell whether I was on a buffalo's back or my
horse, hit and hooked and jostled about, till at length I found myself
alongside my game, when I gave him a shot as I passed him.

[Illustration: THE CHASE ON HORSEBACK. From a painting in the National
Museum by George Catlin.]

I saw guns flash about me in several directions, but I heard them
not. Amidst the trampling throng Mons. Chardon had wounded a stately
bull, and at this moment was passing him with his piece leveled for
another shot. They were both at full speed and I also, within the
reach of the muzzle of my gun, when the bull instantly turned,
receiving the horse upon his horns, and the ground received poor
Chardon, who made a frog's leap of some 20 feet or more over the
bull's back and almost under my horse's heels. I wheeled my horse as
soon as possible and rode back where lay poor Chardon, gasping to
start his breath again, and within a few paces of him his huge
victim, with his heels high in the air, and the horse lying across
him. I dismounted instantly, but Chardon was raising himself on his
hands, with his eyes and mouth full of dirt, and feeling for his gun,
which lay about 30 feet in advance of him. 'Heaven spare you! are you
hurt, Chardon?' 'Hi-hic--hic--hic--hic--no;--hic--no--no, I believe
not. Oh, this is not much, Mons. Cataline--this is nothing new--but
this is a d--d hard piece of ground here--hic--oh! hic!' At this the
poor fellow fainted, but in a few moments arose, picked up his gun,
took his horse by the bit, which then opened _its_ eyes, and with a
_hic_ and a ugh--_ughk!_--sprang upon its feet, shook off the dirt,
and here we were, all upon our legs again, save the bull, whose fate
had been more sad than that of either."[53]

[Note 53: North American Indians, I, pp. 25-26.]

The following passage from Mr. Alexander Ross's graphic description of a
great hunt,[54] in which about four hundred hunters made an onslaught
upon a herd, affords a good illustration of the dangers in running
buffalo:

[Note 54: Red River Settlement, p. 256.]

"On this occasion the surface was rocky and full of badger-holes.
Twenty-three horses and riders were at one moment all sprawling on the
ground; one horse, gored by a bull, was killed on the spot; two more
were disabled by the fall; one rider broke his shoulder-blade; another
burst his gun and lost three of his fingers by the accident; and a third
was struck on the knee by an exhausted ball. These accidents will not be
thought overnumerous, considering the result, for in the evening no less
than thirteen hundred and seventy-five tongues were brought into camp."

It really seems as if the horses of the plains entered willfully and
knowingly into the war on the doomed herds. But for the willingness and
even genuine eagerness with which the "buffalo horses" of both white men
and Indians entered into the chase, hunting on horseback would have been
attended with almost insurmountable difficulties, and the results would
have been much less fatal to the species. According to all accounts the
horses of the Indians and half-breeds were far better trained than those
of their white rivals, no doubt owing to the fact that the use of the
bow, which required the free use of both hands, was only possible when
the horse took the right coarse of his own free will or else could be
guided by the pressure of the knees. If we may believe the historians of
that period, and there is not the slightest reason to doubt them, the
"buffalo horses" of the Indians displayed almost as much intelligence
and eagerness in the chase as did their human riders. Indeed, in
"running buffalo" with only the bow and arrow, nothing but the willing
co-operation of the horse could have possibly made this mode of hunting
either satisfactory or successful.

In Lewis and Clarke's Travels, volume II, page 387, appears the
following record:

"He [Sergeant Pryor] had found it almost impossible with two men to
drive on the remaining horses, for as soon as they discovered a herd of
buffaloes the loose horses immediately set off in pursuit of them, and
surrounded the buffalo herd with almost as much skill as their riders
could have done. At last he was obliged to send one horseman forward and
drive all the buffaloes from the route."

The Hon. H. H. Sibley, who once accompanied the Red River half-breeds on
their annual hunt, relates the following[55]:

"One of the hunters fell from his saddle, and was unable to overtake his
horse, which continued the chase as if he of himself could accomplish
great things, so much do these animals become imbued with a passion for
this sport! On another occasion a half-breed left his favorite steed at
the camp, to enable him to recruit his strength, enjoining upon his wife
the necessity of properly securing the animal, which was not done. Not
relishing the idea of being left behind, he started after us and soon
was alongside, and thus he continued to keep pace with the hunters in
their pursuit of the buffalo, seeming to await with impatience the fall
of some of them to the earth. The chase ended, he came neighing to his
master, whom he soon singled out, although the men were dispersed here
and there for a distance of miles."

[Note 55: Schoolcraft's "North American Indians," 108.]

Col. R. I. Dodge, in his Plains of the Great West, page 129, describes a
meeting with two Mexican buffalo-hunters whose horses were so fleet and
so well trained that whenever a herd of buffalo came in sight, instead
of shooting their game wherever they came up with it, the one having the
best horse would dash into the herd, cut out a fat two-year old, and,
with the help of his partner, then actually drive it to their camp
before shooting it down. "They had a fine lot of meat and a goodly pile
of skins, and they said that every buffalo had been driven into camp and
killed as the one I saw. 'It saves a heap of trouble packing the meat to
camp,' said one of them, naively."

Probably never before in the history of the world, until civilized man
came in contact with the buffalo, did whole armies of men march out in
true military style, with officers, flags, chaplains, and rules of war,
and make war on wild animals. No wonder the buffalo has been
exterminated. So long as they existed north of the Missouri in any
considerable number, the half-breeds and Indians of the Manitoba Red
River settlement used to gather each year in a great army, and go with
carts to the buffalo range. On these great hunts, which took place every
year from about the 15th of June to the 1st of September, vast numbers
of buffalo were killed, and the supply was finally exhausted. As if
Heaven had decreed the extirpation of the species, the half-breed
hunters, like their white robe-hunting rivals farther south, always
killed _cows_ in preference to bulls so long as a choice was possible,
the very course best calculated to exterminate any species in the
shortest possible time.

The army of half-breeds and Indians which annually went forth from the
Red River settlement to make war on the buffalo was often far larger
than the army with which Cortez subdued a great empire. As early as 1846
it had become so great, that it was necessary to divide it into two
divisions, one of which, the White Horse Plain division, was accustomed
to go west by the Assinniboine River to the "rapids crossing-place," and
from there in a southwesterly direction. The Red River division went
south to Pembina, and did the most of their hunting in Dakota. The two
divisions sometimes met (says Professor Hind), but not intentionally. In
1849 a Mr. Flett took a census of the White Horse Plain division, in
Dakota Territory, and found that it contained 603 carts, 700
half-breeds, 200 Indians, 600 horses, 200 oxen, 400 dogs, and 1 cat.

In his "Red River Settlement" Mr. Alexander Ross gives the following
census of the number of carts assembled in camp for the buffalo hunt at
five different-periods:

+--------------------------+
|_Number of carts assembled|
|   for the first trip._   |
+--------------------------+
|In 1820      |         540|
|In 1825      |         680|
|In 1830      |         820|
|In 1835      |         970|
|In 1840      |       1,210|
+--------------------------+

The expedition which was accompanied by Rev. Mr. Belcourt, a Catholic
priest, whose account is set forth in the Hon. Mr. Sibley's paper on the
buffalo,[56] was a comparatively small one, which started from Pembina,
and very generously took pains not to spoil the prospects of the great
Red River division, which was expected to take the field at the same
time. This, therefore, was a small party, like others which had already
reached the range; but it contained 213 carts, 55 hunters and their
families, making 60 lodges in all. This party killed 1,776 cows (bulls
not counted, many of which were killed, though "not even a tongue was
taken"), which yielded 228 bags of pemmican, 1,213 bales of dried meat,
166 sacks of tallow, and 556 bladders full of marrow. But this was very
moderate slaughter, being about 33 buffalo to each family. Even as late
as 1872, when buffalo were getting scarce, Mr. Grant[57] met a
half-breed family on the Qu'Appelle, consisting of man, wife, and seven
children, whose six carts were laden with the meat and robes yielded by
_sixty_ buffaloes; that number representing this one hunter's share of
the spoils of the hunt.

[Note 56: Schoolcraft, pp. 101-110.]

[Note 57: Ocean to Ocean, p. 116.]

To afford an idea of the truly military character of those Red River
expeditions, I have only to quote a page from Prof. Henry Youle
Hind:[58]

[Note 58: Assinniboine and Saskatch. Exp. Exped., II, p. 111.]

"After the start from the settlement has been well made, and all
stragglers or tardy hunters have arrived, a great council is held and a
president elected. A number of captains are nominated by the president
and people jointly. The captains then proceed to appoint their own
policemen, the number assigned to each not exceeding ten. Their duties
are to see that the laws of the hunt are strictly carried out. In 1840,
if a man ran a buffalo without permission before the general hunt began,
his saddle and bridle were cut to pieces for the first offense; for the
second offense his clothes were cut off his back. At the present day
these punishments are changed to a fine of 20 shillings for the first
offense. No gun is permitted to be fired when in the buffalo country
before the 'race' begins. A priest sometimes goes with the hunt, and
mass is then celebrated in the open prairies.

"At night the carts are placed in the form of a circle, with the horses
and cattle inside the ring, and it is the duty of the captains and their
policemen to see that this is rightly done. All laws are proclaimed in
camp, and relate to the hunt alone. All camping orders are given by
signal, a flag being carried by the guides, who are appointed by
election. Each guide has his tarn of one day, and no man can pass a
guide on duty without subjecting himself to a fine of 5 shillings. No
hunter can leave the camp to return home without permission, and no one
is permitted to stir until any animal or property of value supposed to
be lost is recovered. The policemen, at the order of their captains, can
seize any cart at night-fall and place it where they choose for the
public safety, but on the following morning they are compelled to bring
it back to the spot from which they moved it the previous evening. This
power is very necessary, in order that the horses may not be stampeded
by night attacks of the Sioux or other Indian tribes at war with the
half-breeds. A heavy fine is imposed in case of neglect in extinguishing
fires when the camp is broken up in the morning.

"In sight of buffalo all the hunters are drawn up in line, the
president, captains, and police being a few yards in advance,
restraining the impatient hunters. 'Not yet! Not yet!' is the subdued
whisper of the president. The approach to the herd is cautiously made.
'Now!' the president exclaims; and as the word leaves his lips the
charge is made, and in a few minutes the excited half-breeds are amongst
the bewildered buffalo."

"After witnessing one buffalo hunt," says Prof. John Macoun, "I can not
blame the half-breed and the Indian for leaving the farm and wildly
making for the plains when it is reported that buffalo have crossed the
border."

The "great fall hunt" was a regular event with about all the Indian
tribes living within striking distance of the buffalo, in the course of
which great numbers of buffalo were killed, great quantities of meat
dried and made into pemmican, and all the skins taken were tanned in
various ways to suit the many purposes they were called upon to serve.

Mr. Francis La Flesche informs me that during the presence of the
buffalo in western Nebraska and until they were driven south by the
Sioux, the fall hunt of the Omahas was sometimes participated in by
three hundred lodges, or about 3,000 people all told, six hundred of
whom were warriors, and each of whom generally killed about ten
buffaloes. The laws of the hunt were very strict and inexorable. In
order that all participants should have an equal chance, it was decreed
that any hunter caught "still-hunting" should be soundly flogged. On one
occasion an Indian was discovered in the act, but not caught. During the
chase which was made to capture him many arrows were fired at him by the
police, but being better mounted than his pursuers he escaped, and kept
clear of the camp during the remainder of the hunt. On another occasion
an Omaha, guilty of the same offense, was chased, and in his effort to
escape his horse fell with him in a coulée and broke one of his legs. In
spite of the sad plight of the Omaha, his pursuers came up and flogged
him, just as if nothing had happened.

After the invention of the Colt's revolver, and breech-loading rifles
generally, the chase on horseback speedily became more fatal to the
bison than it ever had been before. With such weapons, it was possible
to gallop into the midst of a flying herd and, during the course of a
run of 2 or 3 miles, discharge from twelve to forty shots at a range of
only a few yards, or even a few feet. In this kind of hunting the heavy
Navy revolver was the favorite weapon, because it could be held in one
hand and fired with far greater precision than could a rifle held in
both hands. Except in the hands of an expert, the use of the rifle was
limited, and often attended with risk to the hunter; but the revolver
was good for all directions; it could very often be used with deadly
effect where a rifle could not have been used at all, and, moreover, it
left the bridle-hand free. Many cavalrymen and hunters were able to use
a revolver with either hand, or one in each hand. Gen. Lew. Wallace
preferred the Smith and Wesson in 1867, which he declared to be "the
best of revolvers" then.

It was his marvelous skill in shooting buffaloes with a rifle, from the
back of a galloping horse, that earned for the Hon. W. F. Cody the
sobriquet by which he is now familiarly known to the world--"Buffalo
Bill." To the average hunter on horseback the galloping of the horse
makes it easy for him to aim at the heart of a buffalo and shoot clear
over its back. No other shooting is so difficult, or requires such
consummate dexterity as shooting with any kind of a gun, especially a
rifle, from the back of a running horse. Let him who doubts this
statement try it for himself and he will doubt no more. It was in the
chase of the buffalo on horseback, armed with a rifle, that "Buffalo
Bill" acquired the marvelous dexterity with the rifle which he has since
exhibited in the presence of the people of two continents. I regret that
circumstances have prevented my obtaining the exact figures of the great
kill of buffaloes that Mr. Cody once made in a single run, in which he
broke all previous records in that line, and fairly earned his title. In
1867 he entered into a contract with the Kansas Pacific Railway, then in
course of construction through western Kansas, at a monthly salary of
$500, to deliver all the buffalo meat that would be required by the army
of laborers engaged in building the road. In eighteen mouths he killed
4,280 buffaloes.

3. _Impounding or Killing in Pens._--At first thought it seems hard to
believe that it was ever possible for Indians to build pens and drive
wild buffaloes into them, as cowboys now corral their cattle, yet such
wholesale catches were of common occurrence among the Plains Crees of
the south Saskatchewan country, and the same general plan was pursued,
with slight modifications, by the Indians of the Assinniboine,
Blackfeet, and Gros Ventres, and other tribes of the Northwest. Like the
keddah elephant-catching operations in India, this plan was feasible
only in a partially wooded country, and where buffalo were so numerous
that their presence could be counted upon to a certainty. The "pound"
was simply a circular pen, having a single entrance; but being unable to
construct a gate of heavy timbers, such as is made to drop and close the
entrance to an elephant pen, the Indians very shrewdly got over the
difficulty by making the opening at the edge of a perpendicular bank 10
or 12 feet high, easy enough for a buffalo to jump down, but impossible
for him to scale afterward. It is hardly probable that Indians who were
expert enough to attack and kill buffalo on foot would have been tempted
to undertake the labor that building a pound always involved, had it not
been for the wild excitement attending captures made in this way, and
which were shared to the fullest possible extent by warriors, women, and
children alike.

The best description of this method which has come under our notice is
that of Professor Hind, who witnessed its practice by the Plains Crees,
on the headwaters of the Qu'Appelle River, in 1858. He describes the
pound he saw as a fence, constructed of the trunks of trees laced
together with green withes, and braced on the outside by props,
inclosing a circular space about 120 feet in diameter. It was placed in
a pretty dell between sand-hills, and leading from it in two diverging
rows (like the guiding wings of an elephant pen) were the two rows of
bushes which the Indians designate "dead men," which serve to guide the
buffalo into the pound. The "dead men" extended a distance of 4 miles
into the prairie. They were placed about 50 feet apart, and the two
rows gradually diverged until at their extremities they were from 11/2
to 2 miles apart.

[Illustration: CREE INDIANS IMPOUNDING BUFFALOES. Reproduced from Prof.
H. Y. Hind's--"Red River, Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition."]

"When the skilled hunters are about to bring in a herd of buffalo from
the prairie," says Professor Hind, "they direct the course of the gallop
of the alarmed animals by confederates stationed in hollows or small
depressions, who, when the buffalo appear inclined to take a direction
leading from the space marked out by the 'dead men,' show themselves for
a moment and wave their robes, immediately hiding again. This serves to
turn the buffalo slightly in another direction, and when the animals,
having arrived between the rows of 'dead men,' endeavor to pass through
them, Indians stationed here and there behind a 'dead man' go through
the same operation, and thus keep the animals within the narrowing
limits of the converging lines. At the entrance to the pound there is a
strong trunk of a tree placed about a foot from the ground, and on the
inner side an excavation is made sufficiently deep to prevent the
buffalo from leaping back when once in the pound. As soon as the animals
have taken the fatal spring, they begin to gallop round and round the
ring fence, looking for a chance to escape, but with the utmost silence
women and children on the outside hold their robes before every orifice
until the whole herd is brought in; then they climb to the top of the
fence, and, with the hunters who have followed closely in the rear of
the buffalo, spear or shoot with bows and arrows or fire-arms at the
bewildered animals, rapidly becoming frantic with rage and terror,
within the narrow limits of the pound.

"A dreadful scene of confusion and slaughter then begins; the oldest and
strongest animals crush and toss the weaker; the shouts and screams of
the excited Indians rise above the roaring of the bulls, the bellowing
of the cows, and the piteous moaning of the calves. The dying struggles
of so many huge and powerful animals crowded together create a revolting
and terrible scene, dreadful from the excess of its cruelty and waste of
life, but with occasional displays of wonderful brute strength and rage;
while man in his savage, untutored, and heathen state shows both in deed
and expression how little he is superior to the noble beasts he so
wantonly and cruelly destroys."[59]

[Note 59: Assinniboine and Saskatchewan Expedition, p. 358.]

The last scene of the bloody tragedy is thus set forth a week later:

"Within the circular fence ... lay, tossed in every conceivable
position, over two hundred dead buffalo. [The exact number was 240.]
From old bulls to calves of three months' old, animals of every age were
huddled together in all the forced attitudes of violent death. Some lay
on their backs, with eyes starting from their heads and tongue thrust
out through clotted gore. Others were impaled on the horns of the old
and strong bulls. Others again, which had been tossed, were lying with
broken backs, two and three deep. One little calf hung suspended on the
horns of a bull which had impaled it in the wild race round and round
the pound. The Indians looked upon the dreadful and sickening sight
with evident delight, and told how such and such a bull or cow had
exhibited feats of wonderful strength in the death-struggle. The flesh
of many of the cows had been taken from them, and was drying in the sun
on stages near the tents. It is needless to say that the odor was
overpowering, and millions of large blue flesh-flies, humming and
buzzing over the putrefying bodies, was not the least disgusting part of
the spectacle."

It is some satisfaction to know that when the first "run" was made, ten
days previous, the herd of two hundred buffaloes was no sooner driven
into the pound than a wary old bull espied a weak spot in the fence,
charged it at full speed, and burst through to freedom and the prairie,
followed by the entire herd.

Strange as it may seem to-day, this wholesale method of destroying
buffalo was once practiced in Montana. In his memoir on "The American
Bison," Mr. J. A. Allen states that as late as 1873, while journeying
through that Territory in charge of the Yellowstone Expedition, he
"several times met with the remains of these pounds and their converging
fences in the region above the mouth of the Big Horn River." Mr. Thomas
Simpson states that in 1840 there were three camps of Assinniboine
Indians in the vicinity of Carlton House, each of which had its buffalo
pound into which they drove forty or fifty animals daily.

4. _The "Surround."_--During the last forty years the final
extermination of the buffalo has been confidently predicted by not only
the observing white man of the West, but also nearly all the Indians and
half-breeds who formerly depended upon this animal for the most of the
necessities, as well as luxuries, of life. They have seen the great
herds driven westward farther and farther, until the plains were left
tenantless, and hunger took the place of feasting on the choice tid-bits
of the chase. And is it not singular that during this period the Indian
tribes were not moved by a common impulse to kill sparingly, and by the
exercise of a reasonable economy in the chase to make the buffalo last
as long as possible.

But apparently no such thoughts ever entered their minds, so far as
_they themselves_ were concerned. They looked with jealous eyes upon the
white hunter, and considered him as much of a robber as if they had a
brand on every buffalo. It has been claimed by some authors that the
Indians killed with more judgment and more care for the future than did
the white man, but I fail to find any evidence that such was ever the
fact. They all killed wastefully, wantonly, and always about five times
as many head as were really necessary for food. It was always the same
old story, whenever a gang of Indians needed meat a whole herd was
slaughtered, the choicest portions of the finest animals were taken, and
about 75 per cent of the whole left to putrefy and fatten the wolves.
And now, as we read of the appalling slaughter, one can scarcely repress
the feeling of grim satisfaction that arises when we also read that many
of the ex-slaughterers are almost starving for the millions of pounds
of fat and juicy buffalo meat they wasted a few years ago. Verily, the
buffalo is in a great measure avenged already.

The following extract from Mr. Catlin's "North American Indians,"[60] I,
page 199-200, serves well to illustrate not only a very common and very
deadly Indian method of wholesale slaughter--the "surround"--but also
to show the senseless destructiveness of Indians even when in a state of
semi-starvation, which was brought upon them by similar acts of
improvidence and wastefulness.

[Note 60: H. Mis. 600, pt. 2-31]

"The Minatarees, as well as the Mandans, had suffered for some months
past for want of meat, and had indulged in the most alarming fears that
the herds of buffalo were emigrating so far off from them that there was
great danger of their actual starvation, when it was suddenly announced
through the village one morning at an early hour that a herd of
buffaloes was in sight. A hundred or more young men mounted their
horses, with weapons in hand, and steered their course to the prairies.
* * *

"The plan of attack, which in this country is familiarly called a
surround, was explicitly agreed upon, and the hunters, who were all
mounted on their 'buffalo horses' and armed with bows and arrows or long
lances, divided into two columns, taking opposite directions, and drew
themselves gradually around the herd at a mile or more distance from
them, thus forming a circle of horsemen at equal distances apart, who
gradually closed in upon them with a moderate pace at a signal given.
The unsuspecting herd at length 'got the wind' of the approaching enemy
and fled in a mass in the greatest confusion. To the point where they
were aiming to cross the line the horsemen were seen, at full speed,
gathering and forming in a column, brandishing their weapons, and
yelling in the most frightful manner, by which they turned the black and
rushing mass, which moved off in an opposite direction, where they were
again met and foiled in a similar manner, and wheeled back in utter
confusion; by which time the horsemen had closed in from all directions,
forming a continuous line around them, whilst the poor affrighted
animals were eddying about in a crowded and confused mass, hooking and
climbing upon each other, when the work of death commenced. I had rode
up in the rear and occupied an elevated position at a few rods'
distance, from which I could (like the general of a battlefield) survey
from my horse's back the nature and the progress of the grand _mêlée_,
but (unlike him) without the power of issuing a command or in any way
directing its issue.

"In this grand turmoil [see illustration] a cloud of dust was soon
raised, which in parts obscured the throng where the hunters were
galloping their horses around and driving the whizzing arrows or their
long lances to the hearts of these noble animals; which in many
instances, becoming infuriated with deadly wounds in their sides,
erected their shaggy manes over their bloodshot eyes and furiously
plunged forward at the sides of their assailants' horses, sometimes
goring them to death at a lunge and putting their dismounted riders to
flight for their lives. Sometimes their dense crowd was opened, and the
blinded horsemen, too intent on their prey amidst the cloud of dust,
were hemmed and wedged in amidst the crowding beasts, over whose backs
they were obliged to leap for security, leaving their horses to the fate
that might await them in the results of this wild and desperate war.
Many were the bulls that turned upon their assailants and met them with
desperate resistance, and many were the warriors who were dismounted and
saved themselves by the superior muscles of their legs; some who were
closely pursued by the bulls wheeled suddenly around, and snatching the
part of a buffalo robe from around their waists, threw it over the horns
and eyes of the infuriated beast, and darting by its side drove the
arrow or the lance to its heart; others suddenly dashed off upon the
prairie by the side of the affrighted animals which had escaped from the
throng, and closely escorting them for a few rods, brought down their
heart's blood in streams and their huge carcasses upon the green and
enameled turf.

"In this way this grand hunt soon resolved itself into a desperate
battle, _and in the space of fifteen minutes resulted in the total
destruction of the whole herd_, which in all their strength and fury
were doomed, like every beast and living thing else, to fall before the
destroying hands of mighty man.

"I had sat in trembling silence upon my horse and witnessed this
extraordinary scene, which allowed not one of these animals to escape
out of my sight. Many plunged off upon the prairie for a distance, but
were overtaken and killed, and although I could not distinctly estimate
the number that were slain, yet I am sure that some hundreds of these
noble animals fell in this grand _mêlée_. * * * Amongst the poor
affrighted creatures that had occasionally dashed through the ranks of
their enemy and sought safety in flight upon the prairie (and in some
instances had undoubtedly gained it), I saw them stand awhile, looking
back, when they turned, and, as if bent on their own destruction,
retraced their steps, and mingled themselves and their deaths with those
of the dying throng. Others had fled to a distance on the prairies, and
for want of company, of friends or of foes, had stood and gazed on till
the battle-scene was over, seemingly taking pains to stay and hold their
lives in readiness for their destroyers until the general destruction
was over, when they fell easy victims to their weapons, making the
slaughter complete."

It is to be noticed that _every animal_ of this entire herd of several
hundred was slain on the spot, and there is no room to doubt that at
least half (possibly much more) of the meat thus taken was allowed to
become a loss. People who are so utterly senseless as to wantonly
destroy their own source of food, as the Indians have done, certainly
deserve to starve.

This "surround" method of wholesale slaughter was also practiced by
the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Sioux, Pawnees, Ornabas, and probably many
other tribes.

[Illustration: THE SURROUND. From a painting in the National Museum by
George Catlin.]

5. _Decoying and Driving._--Another method of slaughtering by wholesale
is thus described by Lewis and Clarke, I, 235. The locality indicated
was the Missouri River, in Montana, just above the mouth of Judith
River:

"On the north we passed a precipice about 120 feet high, under which lay
scattered the fragments of at least one hundred carcasses of buffaloes,
although the water which had washed away the lower part of the hill,
must have carried off many of the dead. These buffaloes had been chased
down a precipice in a way very common on the Missouri, and by which vast
herds are destroyed in a moment. The mode of hunting is to select one of
the most active and fleet young men, who is disguised by a buffalo skin
round his body; the skin of the head with the ears and horns fastened on
his own head in such a way as to deceive the buffaloes. Thus dressed, he
fixes himself at a convenient distance between a herd of buffaloes and
any of the river precipices, which sometimes extend for some miles.

"His companions in the mean time get in the rear and side of the herd,
and at a given signal show themselves, and advance towards the
buffaloes. They instantly take alarm, and, finding the hunters beside
them, they run toward the disguised Indian or decoy, who leads them on
at full speed toward the river, when, suddenly securing himself in some
crevice of the cliff which he had previously fixed on, the herd is left
on the brink of the precipice; it is then in vain for the foremost to
retreat or even to stop; they are pressed on by the hindmost rank, who,
seeing no danger but from the hunters, goad on those before them till
the whole are precipitated and the shore is strewed with their dead
bodies. Sometimes in this perilous seduction the Indian is himself
either trodden under foot by the rapid movements of the buffaloes, or,
missing his footing in the cliff, is urged down the precipice by the
falling herd. The Indians then select as much meat as they wish, and the
rest is abandoned to the wolves, and creates a most dreadful stench."

Harper's Magazine, volume 38, page 147, contains the following from the
pen of Theo. E. Davis, in an article entitled "The Buffalo Range:"

"As I have previously stated, the best hunting on the range is to be
found between the Platte and Arkansas Rivers. Here I have seen the
Indians have recourse to another method of slaughtering buffalo in a
very easy, but to me a cruel way, for where one buffalo is killed
several are sure to be painfully injured; but these, too, are soon
killed by the Indians, who make haste to lance or shoot the cripples.

"The mode of hunting is somewhat as follows: A herd is discovered
grazing on the table-lands. Being thoroughly acquainted with the
country, the Indians are aware of the location of the nearest point
where the table land is broken abruptly by a precipice which descends a
hundred or more feet. Toward this 'devil-jump' the Indians head the
herd, which is at once driven pell mell to and over the precipice.
Meanwhile a number of Indians have taken their way by means of routes
known to them, and succeed in reaching the cañon through which the
crippled buffalo are running in all directions. These are quickly
killed, so that out of a very considerable band of buffalo but few
escape, many having been killed by the fall and others dispatched while
limping off. This mode of hunting is sometimes indulged in by
harum-scarum white men, but it is done more for deviltry than anything
else. I have never known of its practice by army officers or persons who
professed to hunt buffalo as a sport."

6. _Hunting on Snow-shoes._--"In the dead of the winters," says Mr.
Catlin,[61] "which are very long and severely cold in this country,
where horses can not be brought into the chase with any avail, the
Indian runs upon the surface of the snow by aid of his snow-shoes, which
buoy him up, while the great weight of the buffaloes sinks them down to
the middle of their sides, and, completely stopping their progress,
insures them certain and easy victims to the bow or lance of their
pursuers. The snow in these regions often lies during the winter to the
depth of 3 and 4 feet, being blown away from the tops and sides of the
hills in many places, which are left bare for the buffaloes to graze
upon, whilst it is drifted in the hollows and ravines to a very great
depth, and rendered almost entirely impassable to these huge animals,
which, when closely pursued by their enemies, endeavor to plunge through
it, but are soon wedged in and almost unable to move, where they fall an
easy prey to the Indian, who runs up lightly upon his snow-shoes and
drives his lance to their hearts. The skins are then stripped off, to be
sold to the fur traders, and the carcasses left to be devoured by the
wolves. [Owing to the fact that the winter's supply of meat was procured
and dried in the summer and fall months, the flesh of all buffalo killed
in winter was allowed to become a total loss.] This is the season in
which the greatest number of these animals are destroyed for their
robes; they are most easily killed at this time, and their hair or fur,
being longer and more abundant, gives greater value to the robe."

[Note 61: North American Indians, I, 253.]


       *       *       *       *       *




III. PROGRESS OF THE EXTERMINATION.

A. THE PERIOD OF DESULTORY DESTRUCTION, FROM 1730 TO 1830.

[Illustration: INDIANS ON SNOW-SHOES HUNTING BUFFALOES.
From a painting in the National Museum by George Catlin.]


The disappearance of the buffalo from all the country east of the
Mississippi was one of the inevitable results of the advance of
civilization. To the early pioneers who went forth into the wilderness
to wrestle with nature for the necessities of life, this valuable animal
might well have seemed a gift direct from the hand of Providence. During
the first few years of the early settler's life in a new country, the
few domestic animals he had brought with him were far too valuable to
be killed for food, and for a long period he looked to the wild animals
of the forest and the prairie for his daily supply of meat. The time was
when no one stopped to think of the important part our game animals
played in the settlement of this country, and even now no one has
attempted to calculate the lessened degree of rapidity with which the
star of empire would have taken its westward way without the bison,
deer, elk, and antelope. The Western States and Territories pay little
heed to the wanton slaughter of deer and elk now going on in their
forests, but the time will soon come when the "grangers" will enter
those regions and find the absence of game a very serious matter.

Although the bison was the first wild species to disappear before the
advance of civilization, he served a good purpose at a highly critical
period. His huge bulk of toothsome flesh fed many a hungry family, and
his ample robe did good service in the settler's cabin and sleigh in
winter weather. By the time game animals had become scarce, domestic
herds and flocks had taken their place, and hunting became a pastime
instead of a necessity.

As might be expected, from the time the bison was first seen by white
men he has always been a conspicuous prize, and being the largest of the
land quadrupeds, was naturally the first to disappear. Every man's hand
has been against him. While his disappearance from the eastern United
States was, in the main, due to the settler who killed game as a means
of subsistence, there were a few who made the killing of those animals a
regular business. This occurred almost exclusively in the immediate
vicinity of salt springs, around which the bison congregated in great
numbers, and made their wholesale slaughter of easy accomplishment. Mr.
Thomas Ashe[62] has recorded some very interesting facts and
observations on this point. In speaking of an old man who in the latter
part of the last century built a log house for himself "on the immediate
borders of a salt spring," in western Pennsylvania, for the purpose of
killing buffaloes out of the immense droves which frequented that spot,
Mr. Ashe says:

[Note 62: Travels in America in 1806. London, 1808.]

"In the first and second years this old man, with some companions,
killed from six to seven hundred of these noble creatures merely for the
sake of their skins, which to them were worth only 2 shillings each; and
after this 'work of death' they were obliged to leave the place till the
following season, or till the wolves, bears, panthers, eagles, rooks,
ravens, etc., had devoured the carcasses and abandoned the place for
other prey. In the two following years the same persons killed great
numbers out of the first droves that arrived, skinned them, and left
their bodies exposed to the sun and air; but they soon had reason to
repent of this, for the remaining droves, as they came up in succession,
stopped, gazed on the mangled and putrid bodies, sorrowfully moaned or
furiously lowed aloud, and returned instantly to the wilderness in an
unusual run, without tasting their favorite spring or licking the
impregnated earth, which was also once their most agreeable occupation;
nor did they nor any of their race ever revisit the neighborhood.

"The simple history of this spring is that of every other in the settled
parts of this Western World; the carnage of beasts was everywhere the
same. I met with a man who had killed two thousand buffaloes with his
own hand, and others no doubt have done the same thing. In consequence
of such proceedings not one buffalo is at this time to be found east of
the Mississippi, except a few domesticated by the curious, or carried
through the country on a public show."

But, fortunately, there is no evidence that such slaughter as that
described by Mr. Ashe was at all common, and there is reason for the
belief that until within the last forty years the buffalo was sacrificed
in ways conducive to the greatest good of the greatest number.

From Coronado to General Frémont there has hardly been an explorer of
United States territory who has not had occasion to bless the bison, and
its great value to mankind can hardly be overestimated, although by many
it can readily be forgotten.

The disappearance of the bison from the eastern United States was due to
its consumption as food. It was very gradual, like the march of
civilization, and, under the circumstances, absolutely inevitable. In a
country so thickly peopled as this region speedily became, the mastodon
could have survived extinction about as easily as the bison. Except when
the latter became the victim of wholesale slaughter, there was little
reason to bemoan his fate, save upon grounds that may be regarded purely
sentimental. He served a most excellent purpose in the development of
the country. Even as late as 1875 the farmers of eastern Kansas were in
the habit of making trips every fall into the western part of that State
for wagon loads of buffalo meat as a supply for the succeeding winter.
The farmers of Texas, Nebraska, Dakota, and Minnesota also drew largely
upon the buffalo as long as the supply lasted.

The extirpation of the bison west of the Rocky Mountains was due to
legitimate hunting for food and clothing rather than for marketable
peltries. In no part of that whole region was the species ever numerous,
although in the mountains themselves, notably in Colorado, within easy
reach of the great prairies on the east, vast numbers were seen by the
early explorers and pioneers. But to the westward, away from the
mountains, they were very rarely met with, and their total destruction
in that region was a matter of easy accomplishment. According to Prof.
J. A. Allen the complete disappearance of the bison west of the Rocky
Mountains took place between 1838 and 1840.

B. THE PERIOD OF SYSTEMATIC SLAUGHTER, FROM 1830 TO 1838.

We come now to a history which I would gladly leave unwritten. Its
record is a disgrace to the American people in general, and the
Territorial, State, and General Government in particular. It will cause
succeeding generations to regard us as being possessed of the leading
characteristics of the savage and the beast of prey--cruelty and greed.
We will be likened to the blood-thirsty tiger of the Indian jungle, who
slaughters a dozen bullocks at once when he knows he can eat only one.

In one respect, at least, the white men who engaged in the systematic
slaughter of the bison were savages just as much as the Piegan Indians,
who would drive a whole herd over a precipice to secure a week's rations
of meat for a single village. The men who killed buffaloes for their
tongues and those who shot them from the railway trains for sport were
murderers. In no way does civilized man so quickly revert to his former
state as when he is alone with the beasts of the field. Give him a gun
and something which he may kill without getting himself in trouble, and,
presto! he is instantly a savage again, finding exquisite delight in
bloodshed, slaughter, and death, if not for gain, then solely for the
joy and happiness of it. There is no kind of warfare against game
animals too unfair, too disreputable, or too mean for white men to
engage in if they can only do so with safety to their own precious
carcasses. They will shoot buffalo and antelope from running railway
trains, drive deer into water with hounds and cut their throats in cold
blood, kill does with fawns a week old, kill fawns by the score for
their spotted skins, slaughter deer, moose, and caribou in the snow at a
pitiful disadvantage, just as the wolves do; exterminate the wild ducks
on the whole Atlantic seaboard with punt guns for the metropolitan
markets; kill off the Rocky Mountain goats for hides worth only 50 cents
apiece, destroy wagon loads of trout with dynamite, and so on to the end
of the chapter.

Perhaps the most gigantic task ever undertaken on this continent in the
line of game-slaughter was the extermination of the bison in the great
pasture region by the hide-hunters. Probably the brilliant rapidity and
success with which that lofty undertaking was accomplished was a matter
of surprise even to those who participated in it. The story of the
slaughter is by no means a long one.

The period of systematic slaughter of the bison naturally begins with
the first organized efforts in that direction, in a business-like,
wholesale way. Although the species had been steadily driven westward
for a hundred years by the advancing settlements, and had during all
that time been hunted for the meat and robes it yielded, its
extermination did not begin in earnest until 1820, or thereabouts. As
before stated, various persons had previous to that time made buffalo
killing a business in order to sell their skins, but such instances were
very exceptional. By that time the bison was totally extinct in all the
region lying east of the Mississippi River except a portion of
Wisconsin, where it survived until about 1830. In 1820 the first
organized buffalo hunting expedition on a grand scale was made from the
Red River settlement, Manitoba, in which five hundred and forty carts
proceeded to the range. Previous to that time the buffaloes were found
near enough to the settlements around Fort Garry that every settler
could hunt independently; but as the herds were driven farther and
farther away, it required an organized effort and a long journey to
reach them.

The American Fur Company established trading posts along the Missouri
River, one at the mouth of the Tetón River and another at the mouth of
the Yellowstone. In 1826 a post was established at the eastern base of
the Rocky Mountains, at the head of the Arkansas River, and in 1832
another was located in a corresponding situation at the head of the
South Fork of the Platte, close to where Denver now stands. Both the
latter were on what was then the western border of the buffalo range.
Elsewhere throughout the buffalo country there were numerous other
posts, always situated as near as possible to the best hunting ground,
and at the same time where they would be most accessible to the hunters,
both white and red.

As might be supposed, the Indians were encouraged to kill buffaloes for
their robes, and this is what Mr. George Catlin wrote at the mouth of
the Tetón River (Pyatt County, Dakota) in 1832 concerning this
trade:[63]

"It seems hard and cruel (does it not?) that we civilized people, with
all the luxuries and comforts of the world about us, should be drawing
from the backs of these useful animals the skins for our luxury, leaving
their carcasses to be devoured by the wolves; that we should draw from
that country some one hundred and fifty or two hundred thousand of their
robes annually, the greater part of which are taken from animals that
are killed expressly for the robe, at a season when the meat is not
cured and preserved, and for each of which skins the Indian has received
but a pint of whisky! Such is the fact, and that number, or near it, are
annually destroyed, in addition to the number that is necessarily killed
for the subsistence of three hundred thousand Indians, who live chiefly
upon them."

The author further declared that the fur trade in those "great western
realms" was then limited chiefly to the purchase of buffalo robes.

1. _The Red River half-breeds._--In June, 1840, when the Red River
half-breeds assembled at Pembina for their annual expedition against the
buffalo, they mustered as follows:

+-------------------------------------+
|Carts                          |1,210|
+-------------------------+-----+-----+
|Hunters                  |  620|     |
+-------------------------+-----+     |
|Women                    |  650|1,630|
+-------------------------+-----+     |
|Boys and girls           |  360|     |
+-------------------------+-----+-----+
|Horses (buffalo runners)       |  403|
+-------------------------------+-----+
|Dogs                           |  542|
+-------------------------------+-----+
|Cart horses                    |  655|
+-------------------------------+-----+
|Draught oxen                   |  586|
+-------------------------------+-----+
|Skinning knives                |1,240|
+-------------------------------------+

The total value of the property employed in this expedition and the
working time occupied by it (two months) amounted to the enormous sum of
£24,000.

[Note 63: North American Indians, I, p. 263.]

Although the bison formerly ranged to Fort Garry (near Winnipeg), they
had been steadily killed off and driven back, and in 1840 none were
found by the expedition until it was 250 miles from Pembina, which is
situated on the Red River, at the international boundary. At that time
the extinction of the species from the Red River to the Cheyenne was
practically complete. The Red River settlers, aided, of course, by the
Indians of that region, are responsible for the extermination of the
bison throughout northeastern Dakota as far as the Cheyenne River,
northern Minnesota, and the whole of what is now the province of
Manitoba. More than that; as the game grew scarce and retired farther
and farther, the half-breeds, who despised agriculture as long as there
was a buffalo to kill, extended their hunting operations westward along
the Qu'Appelle until they encroached upon the hunting-grounds of the
Plain Crees, who lived in the Saskatchewan country.

Thus was an immense inroad made in the northern half of the herd which
had previously covered the entire pasture region from the Great Slave
Lake to central Texas. This was the first visible impression of the
systematic killing which began in 1820. Up to 1840 it is reasonably
certain, as will be seen by figures given elsewhere, that by this
business-like method of the half-breeds, at least 652,000 buffaloes were
destroyed by them alone.

Even as early as 1840 the Red River hunt was prosecuted through Dakota
southwestwardly to the Missouri River and a short distance beyond it.
Here it touched the wide strip of territory, bordering that stream,
which was even then being regularly drained of its animal resources by
the Indian hunters, who made the river their base of operations, and
whose robes were shipped on its steam-boats.

It is certain that these annual Red River expeditions into Dakota were
kept up as late as 1847, and as long thereafter as buffaloes were to be
found in any number between the Cheyenne and the Missouri. At the same
time, the White Horse Plains division, which hunted westward from Fort
Garry, did its work of destruction quite as rapidly and as thoroughly as
the rival expedition to the United States.

In 1857 the Plains Crees, inhabiting the country around the headwaters
of the Qu'Appelle River (250 miles due west from Winnipeg), assembled in
council, and "determined that in consequence of promises often made and
broken by the white men and half-breeds, and the rapid destruction by
them of the buffalo they fed on, they would not permit either white men
or half-breeds to hunt in their country, or travel through it, except
for the purpose of trading for their dried meat, pemmican, skins and
robes."

In 1858 the Crees reported that between the two branches of the
Saskatchewan buffalo were "very scarce." Professor Hind's expedition saw
only one buffalo in the whole course of their journey from Winnipeg
until they reached Sand Hill Lake, at the head of the Qu'Appelle, near
the south branch of the Saskatchewan, where the first herd was
encountered. Although the species was not totally extinct on the
Qu'Appelle at that time, it was practically so.

2. _The country of the Sioux._--The next territory completely
depopulated of buffaloes by systematic hunting was very nearly the
entire southern half of Dakota, southwestern Minnesota, and northern
Nebraska as far as the North Platte. This vast region, once the favorite
range for hundreds of thousands of buffaloes, had for many years been
the favorite hunting ground of the Sioux Indians of the Missouri, the
Pawnees, Omahas, and all other tribes of that region. The settlement of
Iowa and Minnesota presently forced into this region the entire body of
Mississippi Sioux from the country west of Prairie du Chien and around
Fort Snelling, and materially hastened the extermination of all the game
animals which were once so abundant there. It is absolutely certain that
if the Indians had been uninfluenced by the white traders, or, in other
words, had not been induced to take and prepare a large number of robes
every year for the market, the species would have survived very much
longer than it did. But the demand quickly proved to be far greater than
the supply. The Indians, of course, found it necessary to slaughter
annually a great number of buffaloes for their own wants--for meat,
robes, leather, teepees, etc. When it came to supplementing this
necessary slaughter by an additional fifty thousand or more every year
for marketable robes, it is no wonder that the improvident savages soon
found, when too late, that the supply of buffaloes was not
inexhaustible. Naturally enough, they attributed their disappearance to
the white man, who was therefore a robber, and a proper subject for the
scalping-knife. Apparently it never occurred to the minds of the Sioux
that they themselves were equally to blame; it was always _the paleface_
who killed the buffaloes; and it was always _Sioux_ buffaloes that they
killed. The Sioux seemed to feel that they held a chattel mortgage on
all the buffaloes north of the Platte, and it required more than one
pitched battle to convince them otherwise.

Up to the time when the great Sioux Reservation was established in
Dakota (1875-'77), when 33,739 square miles of country, or nearly the
whole southwest quarter of the Territory, was set aside for the
exclusive occupancy of the Sioux, buffaloes were very numerous
throughout that entire region. East of the Missouri River, which is the
eastern boundary of the Sioux Reservation, from Bismarck all the way
down, the species was practically extinct as early as 1870. But at the
time when it became unlawful for white hunters to enter the territory of
the Sioux nation there were tens of thousands of buffaloes upon it, and
their subsequent slaughter is chargeable to the Indians alone, save as
to those which migrated into the hunting grounds of the whites.

3. _Western railways, and their part in the extermination of the
buffalo._--The building of a railroad means the speedy extermination of
all the big game along its line. In its eagerness to attract the public
and build up "a big business," every new line which traverses a country
containing game does its utmost, by means of advertisements and posters,
to attract the man with a gun. Its game resorts are all laid bare, and
the market hunters and sportsmen swarm in immediately, slaying and to
slay.

Within the last year the last real retreat for our finest game, the only
remaining stronghold for the mountain sheep, goat, caribou, elk, and
deer--northwestern Montana, northern Idaho, and thence westward--has
been laid open to the very heart by the building of the St. Paul,
Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway, which runs up the valley of the Milk
River to Fort Assinniboine, and crosses the Rocky Mountains through Two
Medicine Pass. Heretofore that region has been so difficult to reach
that the game it contains has been measurably secure from general
slaughter; but now it also must "go."

The marking out of the great overland trail by the Argonauts of '49 in
their rush for the gold fields of California was the foreshadowing of
the great east-and-west breach in the universal herd, which was made
twenty years later by the first transcontinental railway.

The pioneers who "crossed the plains" in those days killed buffaloes for
food whenever they could, and the constant harrying of those animals
experienced along the line of travel, soon led them to retire from the
proximity of such continual danger. It was undoubtedly due to this cause
that the number seen by parties who crossed the plains in 1849 and
subsequently, was surprisingly small. But, fortunately for the
buffaloes, the pioneers who would gladly have halted and turned aside
now and then for the excitement of the chase, were compelled to hurry
on, and accomplish the long journey while good weather lasted. It was
owing to this fact, and the scarcity of good horses, that the buffaloes
found it necessary to retire only a few miles from the wagon route to
get beyond the reach of those who would have gladly hunted them.

Mr. Allen Varner, of Indianola, Illinois, has kindly furnished me with
the following facts in regard to the presence of the buffalo, as
observed by him during his journey westward, over what was then known as
the Oregon Trail.

"The old Oregon trail ran from Independence, Missouri, to old Fort
Laramie, through the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, and thence up to
Salt Lake City. We left Independence on May C, 1849, and struck the
Platte River at Grand Island. The trail had been traveled but very
little previous to that year. We saw no buffaloes whatever until we
reached the forks of the Platte, on May 20, or thereabouts. There we saw
seventeen head. From that time on we saw small bunches now and then;
never more than forty or fifty together. We saw no great herds anywhere,
and I should say we did not see over five hundred head all told. The
most western point at which we saw buffaloes was about due north of
Laramie Peak, and it must have been about the 20th of June. We killed
several head for meat during our trip, and found them all rather thin
in flesh. Plainsmen who claimed to know, said that all the buffaloes we
saw had wintered in that locality, and had not had time to get fat. The
annual migration from the south had not yet begun, or rather had not yet
brought any of the southern buffaloes that far north."

In a few years the tide of overland travel became so great, that the
buffaloes learned to keep away from the dangers of the trail, and many a
pioneer has crossed the plains without ever seeing a live buffalo.

4. _The division of the universal herd._--Until the building of the
first transcontinental railway made it possible to market the "buffalo
product," buffalo hunting as a business was almost wholly in the hands
of the Indians. Even then, the slaughter so far exceeded the natural
increase that the narrowing limits of the buffalo range was watched with
anxiety, and the ultimate extinction of the species confidently
predicted. Even without railroads the extermination of the race would
have taken place eventually, but it would have been delayed perhaps
twenty years. With a recklessness of the future that was not to be
expected of savages, though perhaps perfectly natural to civilized white
men, who place the possession of a dollar above everything else, the
Indians with one accord singled out the _cows_ for slaughter, because
their robes and their flesh better suited the fastidious taste of the
noble redskin. The building of the Union Pacific Railway began at Omaha
in 1865, and during that year 40 miles were constructed. The year
following saw the completion of 265 miles more, and in 1867 245 miles
were added, which brought it to Cheyenne. In 1868, 350 miles were built,
and in 1869 the entire line was open to traffic.

In 1867, when Maj. J. W. Powell and Prof. A. H. Thompson crossed the
plains by means of the Union Pacific Railway as far as it was
constructed and thence onward by wagon, they saw during the entire trip
only one live buffalo, a solitary old bull, wandering aimlessly along
the south bank of the Platte River.

The completion of the Union Pacific Railway divided forever the
buffaloes of the United States into two great herds, which thereafter
became known respectively as the northern and southern herds. Both
retired rapidly and permanently from the railway, and left a strip of
country over 50 miles wide almost uninhabited by them. Although many
thousand buffaloes were killed by hunters who made the Union Pacific
Railway their base of operations, the two great bodies retired north and
south so far that the greater number were beyond striking distance from
that line.

5. _The destruction of the southern herd._--The geographical center of
the great southern herd during the few years of its separate existence
previous to its destruction was very near the present site of Garden
City, Kansas. On the east, even as late as 1872, thousands of buffaloes
ranged within 10 miles of Wichita, which was then the headquarters of a
great number of buffalo-hunters, who plied their occupation vigorously
during the winter. On the north the herd ranged within 25 miles of the
Union Pacific, until the swarm of hunters coming down from the north
drove them farther and farther south. On the west, a few small bands
ranged as far as Pike's Peak and the South Park, but the main body
ranged east of the town of Pueblo, Colorado. In the southwest, buffaloes
were abundant as far as the Pecos and the Staked Plains, while the
southern limit of the herd was about on a line with the southern
boundary of New Mexico. Regarding this herd, Colonel Dodge writes as
follows: "Their most prized feeding ground was the section of country
between the South Platte and Arkansas rivers, watered by the Republican,
Smoky, Walnut, Pawnee, and other parallel or tributary streams, and
generally known as the Republican country. Hundreds of thousands went
south from here each winter, but hundreds of thousands remained. It was
the chosen home of the buffalo."

Although the range of the northern herd covered about twice as much
territory as did the southern, the latter contained probably twice as
many buffaloes. The number of individuals in the southern herd in the
year 1871 must have been at least three millions, and most estimates
place the total much higher than that.

During the years from 1866 to 1871, inclusive, the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fé Railway and what is now known as the Kansas Pacific, or Kansas
division of the Union Pacific Railway, were constructed from the
Missouri River westward across Kansas, and through the heart of the
southern buffalo range. The southern herd was literally cut to pieces by
railways, and every portion of its range rendered easily accessible.
There had always been a market for buffalo robes at a fair price, and as
soon as the railways crossed the buffalo country the slaughter began.
The rush to the range was only surpassed by the rush to the gold mines
of California in earlier years. The railroad builders, teamsters,
fortune-seekers, "professional" hunters, trappers, guides, and every one
out of a job turned out to hunt buffalo for hides and meat. The
merchants who had already settled in all the little towns along the
three great railways saw an opportunity to make money out of the buffalo
product, and forthwith began to organize and supply hunting parties with
arms, ammunition, and provisions, and send them to the range. An immense
business of this kind was done by the merchants of Dodge City (Fort
Dodge), Wichita, and Leavenworth, and scores of smaller towns did a
corresponding amount of business in the same line. During the years 1871
to 1874 but little else was done in that country except buffalo killing.
Central depots were established in the best buffalo country, from whence
hunting parties operated in all directions. Buildings were erected for
the curing of meat, and corrals were built in which to heap up the
immense piles of buffalo skins that accumulated. At Dodge City, as late
as 1878, Professor Thompson saw a lot of baled buffalo skins in a
corral, the solid cubical contents of which he calculated to equal 120
cords.

At first the utmost wastefulness prevailed. Every one wanted to kill
buffalo, and no one was willing to do the skinning and curing. Thousands
upon thousands of buffaloes were killed for their tongues alone, and
never skinned. Thousands more were wounded by unskillful marksmen and
wandered off to die and become a total loss. But the climax of
wastefulness and sloth was not reached until the enterprising
buffalo-butcher began to skin his dead buffaloes by horse-power. The
process is of interest, as showing the depth of degradation to which a
man can fall and still call himself a hunter. The skin of the buffalo
was ripped open along the belly and throat, the legs cut around at the
knees, and ripped up the rest of the way. The skin of the neck was
divided all the way around at the back of the head, and skinned back a
few inches to afford a start. A stout iron bar, like a hitching post,
was then driven through the skull and about 18 inches into the earth,
after which a rope was tied very firmly to the thick skin of the neck,
made ready for that purpose. The other end of this rope was then hitched
to the whiffletree of a pair of horses, or to the rear axle of a wagon,
the horses were whipped up, and the skin was forthwith either torn in
two or torn off the buffalo with about 50 pounds of flesh adhering to
it. It soon became apparent to even the most enterprising buffalo
skinner that this method was not an unqualified success, and it was
presently abandoned.

The slaughter which began in 1871 was prosecuted with great vigor and
enterprise in 1872, and reached its heighten 1873. By that time, the
buffalo country fairly swarmed with hunters, each, party putting forth
its utmost efforts to destroy more buffaloes than its rivals. By that
time experience had taught the value of thorough organization, and the
butchering was done in a more business-like way. By a coincidence that
proved fatal to the bison, it was just at the beginning of the slaughter
that breech-loading, long-range rifles attained what was practically
perfection. The Sharps 40-90 or 45-120, and the Remington were the
favorite weapons of the buffalo-hunter, the former being the one in most
general use. Before the leaden hail of thousands of these deadly
breech-loaders the buffaloes went down at the rate of several thousand
daily during the hunting season.

During the years 1871 and 1872 the most wanton wastefulness prevailed.
Colonel Dodge declares that, though hundreds of thousands of skins were
sent to market, they scarcely indicated the extent of the slaughter.
Through want of skill in shooting and want of knowledge in preserving
the hides of those slain by green hunters, _one hide sent to market
represented three, four, or even five dead buffalo_. The skinners and
curers knew so little of the proper mode of curing hides, that at least
half of those actually taken were lost. In the summer and fall of 1872
one hide sent to market represented at least _three_ dead buffalo. This
condition of affairs rapidly improved; but such was the furor for
slaughter, and the ignorance of all concerned, that every hide sent to
market in 1871 represented no less than _five_ dead buffalo.

By 1873 the condition of affairs had somewhat improved, through better
organization of the hunting parties and knowledge gained by experience
in curing. For all that, however, buffaloes were still so exceedingly
plentiful, and shooting was so much easier than skinning, the latter was
looked upon as a necessary evil and still slighted to such an extent
that every hide actually sold and delivered represented two dead
buffaloes.

In 1874 the slaughterers began to take alarm at the increasing scarcity
of buffalo, and the skinners, having a much smaller number of dead
animals to take care of than ever before, were able to devote more time
to each subject and do their work properly. As a result, Colonel Dodge
estimated that during 1874, and from that time on, one hundred skins
delivered represented not more than one hundred and twenty-five dead
buffaloes; but that "no parties have ever got the proportion lower than
this."

The great southern herd was slaughtered by still-hunting, a method which
has already been fully described. A typical hunting party is thus
described by Colonel Dodge:[64]

"The most approved party consisted of four men--one shooter, two
skinners, and one man to cook, stretch hides, and take care of camp.
Where buffalo were very plentiful the number of skinners was increased.
A light wagon, drawn by two horses or mules, takes the outfit into the
wilderness, and brings into camp the skins taken each day. The outfit is
most meager: a sack of flour, a side of bacon, 5 pounds of coffee, tea,
and sugar, a little salt, and possibly a few beans, is a month's supply.
A common or "A" tent furnishes shelter; a couple of blankets for each
man is a bed. One or more of Sharps or Remington's heaviest sporting
rifles, and an unlimited supply of ammunition, is the armament; while a
coffee-pot, Dutch-oven, frying-pan, four tin plates, and four tin cups
constitute the kitchen and table furniture.

"The skinning knives do duty at the platter, and 'fingers were made
before forks.' Nor must be forgotten one or more 10-gallon kegs for
water, as the camp may of necessity be far away from a stream. The
supplies are generally furnished by the merchant for whom the party is
working, who, in addition, pays each of the party a specified percentage
of the value of the skins delivered. The shooter is carefully selected
for his skill and knowledge of the habits of the buffalo. He is captain
and leader of the party. When all is ready, he plunges into the
wilderness, going to the center of the best buffalo region known to him,
not already occupied (for there are unwritten regulations recognized as
laws, giving to each hunter certain rights of discovery and occupancy).
Arrived at the position, he makes his camp in some hidden ravine or
thicket, and makes all ready for work."

[Note 64: Plains of the Great West, p. 134.]

Of course the slaughter was greatest along the lines of the three great
railways--the Kansas Pacific, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, and the
Union Pacific, about in the order named. It reached its height in the
season of 1873. During that year the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé
Railroad carried out of the buffalo country 251,443 robes, 1,017,600
pounds of meat, and 2,743,100 pounds of bones. The end of the southern
herd was then near at hand. Could the southern buffalo range have been
roofed over at that time it would have made one vast charnel-house.
Putrifying carcasses, many of them with the hide still on, lay thickly
scattered over thousands of square miles of the level prairie, poisoning
the air and water and offending the sight. The remaining herds had
become mere scattered bands, harried and driven hither and thither by
the hunters, who now swarmed almost as thickly as the buffaloes. A
cordon of camps was established along the Arkansas River, the South
Platte, the Republican, and the few other streams that contained water,
and when the thirsty animals came to drink they were attacked and driven
away, and with the most fiendish persistency kept from slaking their
thirst, so that they would again be compelled to seek the river and come
within range of the deadly breech-loaders. Colonel Dodge declares that
in places favorable to such warfare, as the south bank of the Platte, a
herd of buffalo has, by shooting at it by day and by lighting fires and
firing guns at night, been kept from water until it has been entirely
destroyed. In the autumn of 1873, when Mr. William Blackmore traveled
for some 30 or 40 miles along the north bank of the Arkansas River to
the east of Port Dodge, "there was a continuous line of putrescent
carcasses, so that the air was rendered pestilential and offensive to
the last degree. The hunters had formed a line of camps along the banks
of the river, and had shot down the buffalo, night and morning, as they
came to drink. In order to give an idea of the number of these
carcasses, it is only necessary to mention that I counted sixty-seven on
one spot not covering 4 acres."

White hunters were not allowed to hunt in the Indian Territory, but the
southern boundary of the State of Kansas was picketed by them, and a
herd no sooner crossed the line going north than it was destroyed. Every
water-hole was guarded by a camp of hunters, and whenever a thirsty herd
approached, it was promptly met by rifle-bullets.

During this entire period the slaughter of buffaloes was universal. The
man who desired buffalo meat for food almost invariably killed five
times as many animals as he could utilize, and after cutting from each
victim its very choicest parts--the _tongue alone_, possibly, or perhaps
the hump and hind quarters, one or the other, or both--fully four-fifths
of the really edible portion of the carcass would be left to the wolves.
It was no uncommon thing for a man to bring in two barrels of salted
buffalo tongues, without another pound of meat or a solitary robe. The
tongues were purchased at 25 cents each and sold in the markets farther
east at 50 cents. In those days of criminal wastefulness it was a very
common thing for buffaloes to be slaughtered for their tongues alone.
Mr. George Catlin[65] relates that a few days previous to his arrival at
the mouth of the Tetón River (Dakota), in 1832, "an immense herd of
buffaloes had showed themselves on the opposite side of the river,"
whereupon a party of five or six hundred Sioux Indians on horseback
forded the river, attacked the herd, recrossed the river about sunset,
and came into the fort with fourteen hundred fresh buffalo tongues,
which were thrown down in a mass, and for which they required only a few
gallons of whisky, which was soon consumed in "a little harmless
carouse." Mr. Catlin states that from all that he could learn not a skin
or a pound of meat, other than the tongues, was saved after this awful
slaughter.

[Note 65: North American Indians, I, 256.]

Judging from all accounts, it is making a safe estimate to say that
probably no fewer than fifty thousand buffaloes have been killed for
their tongues alone, and the most of these are undoubtedly chargeable
against white men, who ought to have known better.

A great deal has been said about the slaughter of buffaloes by foreign
sportsmen, particularly Englishmen; but I must say that, from all that
can be ascertained on this point, this element of destruction has been
greatly exaggerated and overestimated. It is true that every English
sportsman who visited this country in the days of the buffalo always
resolved to have, and did have, "a buffalo hunt," and usually under the
auspices of United States Army officers. Undoubtedly these parties did
kill hundreds of buffaloes, but it is very doubtful whether the
aggregate of the number slain by foreign sportsmen would run up higher
than ten thousand. Indeed, for myself, I am well convinced that there
are many old ex-still-hunters yet living, each of whom is accountable
for a greater number of victims than all buffaloes killed by foreign
sportsmen would make added together. The professional butchers were very
much given to crying out against "them English lords," and holding up
their hands in holy horror at buffaloes killed by them for their heads,
instead of for hides to sell at a dollar apiece; but it is due the
American public to say that all this outcry was received at its true
value and deceived very few. By those in possession of the facts it was
recognized as "a blind," to divert public opinion from the real
culprits.

Nevertheless it is very true that many men who were properly classed as
sportsmen, in contradistinction from the pot-hunters, did engage in
useless and inexcusable slaughter to an extent that was highly
reprehensible, to say the least. A sportsman is not supposed to kill
game wantonly, when it can be of no possible use to himself or any one
else, but a great many do it for all that. Indeed, the sportsman who
kills sparingly and conscientiously is rather the exception than the
rule. Colonel Dodge thus refers to the work of some foreign sportsmen:

"In the fall of that year [1872] three English gentlemen went out with
me for a short hunt, and in their excitement bagged more buffalo than
would have supplied a brigade." As a general thing, however, the
professional sportsmen who went out to have a buffalo hunt for the
excitement of the chase and the trophies it yielded, nearly always found
the bison so easy a victim, and one whose capture brought so little
glory to the hunter, that the chase was voted very disappointing, and
soon abandoned in favor of nobler game. In those days there was no more
to boast of in killing a buffalo than in the assassination of a Texas
steer.

It was, then, the hide-hunters, white and red, but especially white, who
wiped out the great southern herd in four short years. The prices
received for hides varied considerably, according to circumstances, but
for the green or undressed article it usually ranged from 50 cents for
the skins of calves to $1.25 for those of adult animals in good
condition. Such prices seem ridiculously small, but when it is
remembered that, when buffaloes were plentiful it was no uncommon thing
for a hunter to kill from forty to sixty head in a day, it will readily
be seen that the _chances_ of making very handsome profits were
sufficient to tempt hunters to make extraordinary exertions. Moreover,
even when the buffaloes were nearly gone, the country was overrun with
men who had absolutely nothing else to look to as a means of livelihood,
and so, no matter whether the profits were great or small, so long as
enough buffaloes remained to make it possible to get a living by their
pursuit, they were hunted down with the most determined persistency and
pertinacity.

6. _Statistics of the slaughter._--The most careful and reliable
estimate ever made of results of the slaughter of the southern buffalo
herd is that of Col. Richard Irving Dodge, and it is the only one I know
of which furnishes a good index of the former size of that herd.
Inasmuch as this calculation was based on actual statistics,
supplemented by personal observations and inquiries made in that region
during the great slaughter, I can do no better than to quote Colonel
Dodge almost in full.[66]

[Note 66: Plains of the Great West, pp. 139-144.]

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad furnished the following
statistics of the buffalo product carried by it during the years 1872,
1873, and 1874:

+----------------------------------------------------+
|                 _Buffalo product._                 |
+----------------------------------------------------+
|      | No. of skins |               |              |
|Year. |   carried.   | Meat carried. | Bone carried.|
+----------------------------------------------------+
|      |              |  Pounds.      |   Pounds.    |
|1872  |    165,721   |        ...    |   1,135,300  |
|1873  |    251,443   |  1,617,600    |   2,743,100  |
|1874  |     42,289   |    632,800    |   6,914,950  |
+------|--------------|---------------|--------------+
|Total |    459,453   |  2,250,400    |  10,793,350  |
+----------------------------------------------------+

The officials of the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific railroads either
could not or would not furnish any statistics of the amount of the
buffalo product carried by their lines during this period, and it became
necessary to proceed without the actual figures in both cases. Inasmuch
as the Kansas Pacific road cuts through a portion of the buffalo country
which was in every respect as thickly inhabited by those animals as the
region traversed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, it seemed
absolutely certain that the former road hauled out fully as many hides
as the latter, if not more, and its quota is so set down. The Union
Pacific line handled a much smaller number of buffalo hides than either
of its southern rivals, but Colonel Dodge believes that this, "with the
smaller roads which touch the buffalo region, taken together, carried
about as much as either of the two principal buffalo roads."

Colonel Dodge considers it reasonably certain that the statistics
furnished by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé road represent only
one-third of the entire buffalo product, and there certainly appears to
be good ground for this belief. It is therefore in order to base further
calculations upon these figures.

According to evidence gathered on the spot by Colonel Dodge during the
period of the great slaughter, one hide sent to market in 1872
represented three dead buffaloes, in 1873 two, and in 1874 one hundred
skins delivered represented one hundred and twenty-five dead animals.
The total slaughter by white men was therefore about as below:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
|Year.|Hides    |Hides      |Total      |Total     |Total       |
|     |shipped  |shipped    |number of  |number    |of buffaloes|
|     |by A., T.|by other   |buffaloes  |killed and|slaughtered |
|     |and S. F.|roads,     |utilized.  |wasted.   |by whites.  |
|     |railway. |same       |           |          |            |
|     |         |period.    |           |          |            |
|     |         |(estimated)|           |          |            |
+-----+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+------------+
|1872 | 165,721 |  331,442  |  497,163  |   994,326| 1,491,489  |
|1873 | 251,443 |  502,886  |  754,329  |   754,329| 1,508,658  |
|1874 |  42,289 |   84,578  |  126,867  |    31,716|   158,583  |
|Total| 459,453 |  918,906  |1,378,359  | 1,780,481| 3,158,730  |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

During all this time the Indians of all tribes within striking distance
of the herds killed an immense number of buffaloes every year. In the
summer they killed for the hairless hides to use for lodges and for
leather, and in the autumn they slaughtered for robes and meat, but
particularly robes, which were all they could offer the white trader in
exchange for his goods. They were too lazy and shiftless to cure much
buffalo meat, and besides it was not necessary, for the Government fed
them. In regard to the number of buffaloes of the southern herd killed
by the Indians, Colonel Dodge arrives at an estimate, as follows:

"It is much more difficult to estimate the number of dead buffalo
represented by the Indian-tanned skins or robes sent to market. This
number varies with the different tribes, and their greater or less
contact with the whites. Thus, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas of
the southern plains, having less contact with whites, use skins for
their lodges, clothing, bedding, par-fléches, saddles, lariats, for
almost everything. The number of robes sent to market represent only
what we may call the foreign exchange of these tribes, and is really not
more than one-tenth of the skins taken. To be well within bounds I will
assume that one robe sent to market by these Indians represents six dead
buffaloes.

"Those bands of Sioux who live at the agencies, and whose peltries are
taken to market by the Union Pacific Railroad, live in lodges of cotton
cloth furnished by the Indian Bureau. They use much civilized clothing,
bedding, boxes, ropes, etc. For these luxuries they must pay in robes,
and as the buffalo range is far from wide, and their yearly 'crop'
small, more than half of it goes to market."

Leaving out of the account at this point all consideration of the
killing done north of the Union Pacific Railroad, Colonel Dodge's
figures are as follows:

_Southern buffaloes slaughtered by southern Indians._

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                         |Sent to   |No. of dead |
|                Indians.                 |market.   |buffaloes   |
|                                         |          |represented.|
+-----------------------------------------+----------+------------+
|                                         |          |            |
|Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, |          |            |
|and other Indians whose robes go over the|          |            |
|Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad   |  19,000  |  114,000   |
|Sioux at agencies, Union Pacific Railroad|  10,000  |   16,000   |
|                                         +----------+------------+
|Total slaughtered per annum              |  29,000  |  130,000   |
|Total for the three years 1872-1874      |     ...  |  390,000   |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

Reference has already been made to the fact that during those years an
immense number of buffaloes were killed by the farmers of eastern Kansas
and Nebraska for their meat. Mr. William Mitchell, of Wabaunsee, Kansas,
stated to the writer that "in those days, when buffaloes were plentiful
in western Kansas, pretty much everybody made a trip West in the fall
and brought back a load of buffalo meat. Everybody had it in abundance
as long as buffaloes remained in any considerable number. Very few skins
were saved; in fact, hardly any, for the reason that nobody knew how to
tan them, and they always spoiled. At first a great many farmers tried
to dress the green hides that they brought back, but they could not
succeed, and finally gave up trying. Of course, a great deal of the meat
killed was wasted, for only the best parts were brought back."

The Wichita (Kansas) _World_ of February 9, 1889, contains the following
reference:

"In 1871 and 1872 the buffalo ranged within 10 miles of Wichita, and
could be counted by the thousands. The town, then in its infancy, was
the headquarters for a vast number of buffalo-hunters, who plied their
occupation vigorously during the winter. The buffalo were killed
principally for their hides, and daily wagon trains arrived in town
loaded with them. Meat was very cheap in those days; fine, tender
buffalo steak selling from 1 to 2 cents per pound. * * * The business
was quite profitable for a time, but a sudden drop in the price of hides
brought them down as low as 25 and 50 cents each. * * * It was a very
common thing in those days for people living in Wichita to start out in
the morning and return by evening with a wagon load of buffalo meat."

Unquestionably a great many thousand buffaloes were killed annually by
the settlers of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and
the mountain Indians living west of the great range. The number so slain
can only be guessed at, for there is absolutely no data on which to
found an estimate. Judging merely from the number of people within reach
of the range, it may safely be estimated that the total number of
buffaloes slaughtered annually to satisfy the wants of this
heterogeneous element could not have been less than fifty thousand, and
probably was a much higher number. This, for the three years, would make
one hundred and fifty thousand, and the grand total would therefore be
about as follows:

+------------------------------------------------------+
|        _The slaughter of the southern herd._         |
+------------------------------------------------------+
|Killed by "professional" white hunters in |           |
|  1872, 1873, and 1874                    | 3,158,730 |
|Killed by Indians, same period            |   390,000 |
|Killed by settlers and mountain Indians   |   150,000 |
|                                          | --------- |
|     Total slaughter in three years       | 3,098,730 |
+------------------------------------------------------+

These figures seem incredible, but unfortunately there is not the
slightest reason for believing they are too high. There are many men now
living who declare that during the great slaughter they each killed from
twenty-five hundred to three thousand buffaloes every year. With
thousands of hunters on the range, and such possibilities of slaughter
before each, it is, after all, no wonder that an average of nearly a
million and a quarter of buffaloes fell each year during that bloody
period.

By the close of the hunting season of 1875 the great southern herd had
ceased to exist. As a body, it had been utterly annihilated. The main
body of the survivors, numbering about ten thousand head, fled
southwest, and dispersed through that great tract of wild, desolate, and
inhospitable country stretching southward from the Cimarron country
across the "Public Land Strip," the Pan-handle of Texas, and the Llano
Estacado, or Staked Plain, to the Pecos River. A few small bands of
stragglers maintained a precarious existence for a few years longer on
the headwaters of the Republican River and in southwestern Nebraska,
near Ogalalla, where calves were caught alive as late as 1885. Wild
buffaloes were seen in southwestern Kansas for the last time in 1886,
and the two or three score of individuals still living in the Canadian
River country of the Texas Pan-handle are the last wild survivors of the
great Southern herd.

The main body of the fugitives which survived the great slaughter of
1871-'74 continued to attract hunters who were very "hard up," who
pursued them, often at the risk of their own lives, even into the
terrible Llano Estacado. In Montana in 1886 I met on a cattle ranch an
ex-buffalo-hunter from Texas, named Harry Andrews, who from 1874 to 1876
continued in pursuit of the scattered remnants of the great southern
herd through the Pan-handle of Texas and on into the Staked Plain
itself. By that time the market had become completely overstocked with
robes, and the prices received by Andrews and other hunters was only 65
cents each for cow robes and $1.15 each for bull robes, delivered on the
range, the purchaser providing for their transportation to the railway.
But even at those prices, which were so low as to make buffalo killing
seem like downright murder, Mr. Andrews assured me that he "made big
money." On one occasion, when he "got a stand" on a large bunch of
buffalo, he fired one hundred and fifteen shots from one spot, and
killed sixty-three buffaloes in about an hour.

In 1880 buffalo hunting as a business ceased forever in the Southwest,
and so far as can be ascertained, but one successful hunt for robes has
been made in that region since that time. That occurred in the fall and
winter of 1887, about 100 miles north of Tascosa, Texas, when two
parties, one of which was under the leadership of Lee Howard, attacked
the only band of buffaloes left alive in the Southwest, and which at
that time numbered about two hundred head. The two parties killed
fifty-two buffaloes, of which ten skins were preserved entire for
mounting. Of the remaining forty-two, the heads were cut off and
preserved for mounting and the skins were prepared as robes. The
mountable skins were finally sold at the following prices: Young cows,
$50 to $60; adult cows, $75 to $100; adult bull, $150. The unmounted
heads sold as follows: Young bulls, $25 to $30; adult bulls, $50; young
cows, $10 to $12; adult cows, $15 to $25. A few of the choicest robes
sold at $20 each, and the remainder, a lot of twenty eight, of prime
quality and in excellent condition, were purchased by the Hudson's Bay
Fur Company for $350.

Such was the end of the great southern herd. In 1871 it contained
certainly no fewer than three million buffaloes, and by the beginning of
1875 its existence as a herd had utterly ceased, and nothing but
scattered, fugitive bands remained.

7. _The Destruction of the Northern Herd._--Until the building of the
Northern Pacific Railway there were but two noteworthy outlets for the
buffalo robes that were taken annually in the Northwestern Territories
of the United States. The principal one was the Missouri River, and the
Yellowstone River was the other. Down these streams the hides were
transported by steam-boats to the nearest railway shipping point. For
fifty years prior to the building of the Northern Pacific Railway in
1880-'82, the number of robes marketed every year by way of these
streams was estimated variously at from fifty to one hundred thousand.
A great number of hides taken in the British Possessions fell into the
hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, and found a market in Canada.

In May, 1881, the Sioux City (Iowa) _Journal_ contained the following
information in regard to the buffalo robe "crop" of the previous hunting
season--the winter of 1880-'81:

"It is estimated by competent authorities that one hundred thousand
buffalo hides will be shipped out of the Yellowstone country this
season. Two firms alone are negotiating for the transportation of
twenty-five thousand hides each. * * * Most of our citizens saw the big
load of buffalo hides that the _C. K. Peck_ brought down last season, a
load that hid everything about the boat below the roof of the hurricane
deck. There were ten thousand hides in that load, and they were all
brought out of the Yellowstone on one trip and transferred to the _C. K.
Peck_. How such a load could have been piled on the little _Terry_ not
even the men on the boat appear to know. It hid every part of the boat,
barring only the pilot-house and smoke-stacks. But such a load will not
be attempted again. For such boats as ply the Yellowstone there are at
least fifteen full loads of buffalo hides and other pelts. Reckoning one
thousand hides to three car loads, and adding to this fifty cars for the
other pelts, it will take at least three hundred and fifty box-cars to
carry this stupendous bulk of peltry East to market. These figures are
not guesses, but estimates made by men whose business it is to know
about the amount of hides and furs awaiting shipment.

"Nothing like it has ever been known in the history of the fur trade.
Last season the output of buffalo hides was above the average, and last
year only about thirty thousand hides came out of the Yellowstone
country, or less than a third of what is there now awaiting shipment The
past severe winter caused the buffalo to bunch themselves in a few
valleys where there was pasturage, and there the slaughter went on all
winter. There was no sport about it, simply shooting down the
famine-tamed animals as cattle might be shot down in a barn-yard. To the
credit of the Indians it can be said that they killed no more than they
could save the meat from. The greater part of the slaughter was done by
white hunters, or butchers rather, who followed the business of killing
and skinning buffalo by the mouth, leaving the carcasses to rot."

At the time of the great division made by the Union Pacific Railway the
northern body of buffalo extended from the valley of the Platte River
northward to the southern shore of Great Slave Lake, eastward almost to
Minnesota, and westward to an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Rocky
Mountains. The herds were most numerous along the central portion of
this region (see map), and from the Platte Valley to Great Slave Lake
the range was continuous. The buffalo population of the southern half of
this great range was, according to all accounts, nearly three times as
great as that of the northern half. At that time, or, let us say, 1870,
there were about four million buffaloes south of the Platte River, and
probably about one million and a half north of it. I am aware that the
estimate of the number of buffaloes in the great northern herd is
usually much higher than this, but I can see no good grounds for making
it so. To my mind, the evidence is conclusive that, although the
northern herd ranged over such an immense area, it was numerically less
than half the size of the overwhelming multitude which actually crowded
the southern range, and at times so completely consumed the herbage of
the plains that detachments of the United States Army found it difficult
to find sufficient grass for their mules and horses.[67]

[Note 67: As an instance of this, see _Forest and Stream_, vol. II,
p. 184: "Horace Jones, the interpreter here [Fort Sill], says that on
his first trip along the line of the one hundredth meridian, in 1859,
accompanying Major Thomas--since our noble old general--they passed
continuous herds for over 60 miles, which left so little grass behind
them that Major Thomas was seriously troubled about his horses."]

The various influences which ultimately led to the complete blotting out
of the great northern herd were exerted about as follows:

In the British Possessions, where the country was immense and game of
all kinds except buffalo very scarce indeed; where, in the language of
Professor Kenaston, the explorer, "there was a great deal of country
around every wild animal," the buffalo constituted the main dependence
of the Indians, who would not cultivate the soil at all, and of the
half-breeds, who would not so long as they could find buffalo. Under
such circumstances the buffaloes of the British Possessions were hunted
much more vigorously and persistently than those of the United States,
where there was such an abundant supply of deer, elk, antelope, and
other game for the Indians to feed upon, and a paternal government to
support them with annuities besides. Quite contrary to the prevailing
idea of the people of the United States, viz., that there were great
herds of buffaloes in existence in the Saskatchewan country long after
ours had all been destroyed, the herds of British America had been
almost totally exterminated by the time the final slaughter of our
northern herd was inaugurated by the opening of the Northern Pacific
Railway in 1880. The Canadian Pacific Railway played no part whatever in
the extermination of the bison in the British Possessions, for it had
already taken place. The half-breeds of Manitoba, the Plains Crees of
Qu'Appelle, and the Blackfeet of the South Saskatchewan country swept
bare a great belt of country stretching east and west between the Rocky
Mountains and Manitoba. The Canadian Pacific Railway found only
bleaching bones in the country through which it passed. The buffalo had
disappeared from that entire region before 1879 and left the Blackfeet
Indians on the verge of starvation. A few thousand buffaloes still
remained in the country around the headwaters of the Battle River,
between the North and South Saskatchewan, but they were surrounded and
attacked from all sides, and their numbers diminished very rapidly until
all were killed.

The latest information I have been able to obtain in regard to the
disappearance of this northern band has been kindly furnished by Prof.
C. A. Kenaston, who in 1881, and also in 1883, made a thorough
exploration of the country between Winnipeg and Fort Edmonton for the
Canadian Pacific Railway Company. His four routes between the two points
named covered a vast scope of country, several hundred miles in width.
In 1881, at Moose Jaw, 75 miles southeast of The Elbow of the South
Saskatchewan, he saw a party of Cree Indians, who had just arrived from
the northwest with several carts laden with fresh buffalo meat. At Fort
Saskatchewan, on the North Saskatchewan River, just above Edmonton, he
saw a party of English sportsmen who had recently been hunting on the
Battle and Red Deer Rivers, between Edmonton and Fort Kalgary, where
they had found buffaloes, and killed as many as they cared to slaughter.
In one afternoon they killed fourteen, and could have killed more had
they been more blood-thirsty. In 1883 Professor Kenaston found the fresh
trail of a band of twenty-five or thirty buffaloes at The Elbow of the
South Saskatchewan. Excepting in the above instances he saw no further
traces of buffalo, nor did he hear of the existence of any in all the
country he explored. In 1881 he saw many Cree Indians at Fort Qu'Appelle
in a starving condition, and there was no pemmican or buffalo meat at
the fort. In 1883, however, a little pemmican found its way to Winnipeg,
where it sold at 15 cents per pound; an exceedingly high price. It had
been made that year, evidently in the mouth of April, as he purchased it
in May for his journey.

The first really alarming impression made on our northern herd was by
the Sioux Indians, who very speedily exterminated that portion of it
which had previously covered the country lying between the North Platte
and a line drawn from the center of Wyoming to the center of Dakota. All
along the Missouri River from Bismarck to Fort Benton, and along the
Yellowstone to the head of navigation, the slaughter went bravely on.
All the Indian tribes of that vast region--Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows,
Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Assinniboines, Gros Ventres, and
Shoshones--found their most profitable business and greatest pleasure
(next to scalping white settlers) in hunting the buffalo. It took from
eight to twelve buffalo hides to make a covering for one ordinary
teepee, and sometimes a single teepee of extra size required from twenty
to twenty-five hides.

The Indians of our northwestern Territories marketed about seventy-five
thousand buffalo robes every year so long as the northern herd was large
enough to afford the supply. If we allow that for every skin sold to
white traders four others were used in supplying their own wants, which
must be considered a very moderate estimate, the total number of
buffaloes slaughtered annually by those tribes must have been about
three hundred and seventy-five thousand.

The end which so many observers had for years been predicting really
began (with the northern herd) in 1876, two years after the great
annihilation which had taken place in the South, although it was not
until four years later that the slaughter became universal over the
entire range. It is very clearly indicated in the figures given in a
letter from Messrs. I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton, Montana, to the
writer, dated October 6, 1887, which reads as follows:

"There were sent East from the year 1876 from this point about
seventy-five thousand buffalo robes. In 1880 it had fallen to about
twenty thousand, in 1883 not more than five thousand, and in 1884 none
whatever. We are sorry we can not give you a better record, but the
collection of hides which exterminated the buffalo was from the
Yellowstone country on the Northern Pacific, instead of northern
Montana."

The beginning of the final slaughter of our northern herd may be dated
about 1880, by which time the annual robe crop of the Indians had
diminished three-fourths, and when summer killing for hairless hides
began on a large scale. The range of this herd was surrounded on three
sides by tribes of Indians, armed with breech-loading rifles and
abundantly supplied with fixed ammunition. Up to the year 1880 the
Indians of the tribes previously mentioned killed probably three times
as many buffaloes as did the white hunters, and had there not been a
white hunter in the whole Northwest the buffalo would have been
exterminated there just as surely, though not so quickly by perhaps ten
years, as actually occurred. Along the north, from the Missouri River to
the British line, and from the reservation in northwestern Dakota to the
main divide of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of 550 miles as the crow
flies, the country was one continuous Indian reservation, inhabited by
eight tribes, who slaughtered buffalo in season and out of season, in
winter for robes and in summer for hides and meat to dry. In the
Southeast was the great body of Sioux, and on the Southwest the Crows
and Northern Cheyennes, all engaged in the same relentless warfare. It
would have required a body of armed men larger than the whole United
States Army to have withstood this continuous hostile pressure without
ultimate annihilation.

Let it be remembered, therefore, that the American Indian is as much
responsible for the extermination of our northern herd of bison as the
American citizen. I have yet to learn of an instance wherein an Indian
refrained from excessive slaughter of game through motives of economy,
or care for the future, or prejudice against wastefulness. From all
accounts the quantity of game killed by an Indian has always been
limited by two conditions only--lack of energy to kill more, or lack of
more game to be killed. White men delight in the chase, and kill for the
"sport" it yields, regardless of the effort involved. Indeed, to a
genuine sportsman, nothing in hunting is "sport" which is not obtained
at the cost of great labor. An Indian does not view the matter in that
light, and when he has killed enough to supply his wants, he stops,
because he sees no reason why he should exert himself any further. This
has given rise to the statement, so often repeated, that the Indian
killed only enough buffaloes to supply his wants. If an Indian ever
attempted, or even showed any inclination, to husband the resources of
nature in any way, and restrain wastefulness on _the part of Indians_,
it would be gratifying to know of it.

The building of the Northern Pacific Railway across Dakota and Montana
hastened the end that was fast approaching; but it was only an incident
in the annihilation of the northern herd. Without it the final result
would have been just the same, but the end would probably not have been
reached until about 1888.

The Northern Pacific Railway reached Bismarck, Dakota, on the Missouri
River, in the year 1876, and from that date onward received for
transportation eastward all the buffalo robes and hides that came down
the two rivers, Missouri and Yellowstone.

Unfortunately the Northern Pacific Railway Company kept no separate
account of its buffalo product business, and is unable to furnish a
statement of the number of hides and robes it handled. It is therefore
impossible to even make an estimate of the total number of buffaloes
killed on the northern range during the six years which ended with the
annihilation of that herd.

In regard to the business done by the Northern Pacific Railway, and the
precise points from whence the bulk of the robes were shipped, the
following letter from Mr. J. M. Hannaford, traffic manager of the
Northern Pacific Railroad, under date of September 3, 1887, is of
interest.

"Your communication, addressed to President Harris, has been referred to
me for the information desired.

"I regret that our accounts are not so kept as to enable me to furnish
you accurate data; but I have been able to obtain the following general
information, which may prove of some value to you:

"From the years 1876 and 1880 our line did not extend beyond Bismarck,
which was the extreme easterly shipping point for buffalo robes and
hides, they being brought down the Missouri River from the north for
shipment from that point. In the years 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879 there
were handled at that point yearly from three to four thousand bales of
robes, about one-half the bales containing ten robes and the other half
twelve robes each. During these years practically no hides were shipped.
In 1880 the shipment of hides, dry and untanned, commenced,[68] and in
1881 and 1882 our line was extended west, and the shipping points
increased, reaching as far west as Terry and Sully Springs, in Montana.
During these years, 1880, 1881, and 1882, which practically finished the
shipments of hides and robes, it is impossible for me to give you any
just idea of the number shipped. The only figures obtainable are those
of 1881, when over seventy-five thousand dry and untanned buffalo hides
came down the river for shipment from Bismarck. Some robes were also
shipped from this point that year, and a considerable number of robes
and hides were shipped from several other shipping points.

[Note 68: It is to be noted that hairless hides, _taken from buffaloes
killed in summer_, are what the writer refers to. It was not until 1881,
when the end was very near, that hunting buffalo in summer as well as
winter became a wholesale business. What hunting can be more disgraceful
than the slaughter of females and young _in summer_, when skins are
almost worthless.]

"The number of pounds of buffalo meat shipped over our line has never
cut any figure, the bulk of the meat having been left on the prairie, as
not being of sufficient value to pay the cost of transportation.

"The names of the extreme eastern and western stations from which
shipments were made are as follows: In 1880, Bismarck was the only
shipping point. In 1881, Glendive, Bismarck, and Beaver Creek. In 1882,
Terry and Sully Springs, Montana, were the chief shipping points, and in
the order named, so far as numbers and amount of shipments are
concerned. Bismarck on the east and Forsyth on the west were the two
extremities.

"Up to the year 1880, so long as buffalo were killed only for robes, the
bands did not decrease very materially; but beginning with that year,
when they were killed for their hides as well, a most indiscriminate
slaughter commenced, and from that time on they disappeared very
rapidly. Up to the year 1881 there were two large bands, one south of
the Yellowstone and the other north of that river. In the year mentioned
those south of the river were driven north and never returned, having
joined the northern band, and become practically extinguished.

"Since 1882 there have, of course, been occasional shipments both of
hides and robes, but in such small quantities and so seldom that they
cut practically no figure, the bulk of them coming probably from north
Missouri points down the river to Bismarck."

In 1880 the northern buffalo range embraced the following streams; The
Missouri and all its tributaries, from Port Shaw, Montana, to Fort
Bennett, Dakota, and the Yellowstone and all its tributaries. Of this
region, Miles City, Montana, was the geographical center. The grass was
good over the whole of it, and the various divisions of the great herd
were continually shifting from one locality to another, often making
journeys several hundred miles at a time. Over the whole of this vast
area their bleaching bones lie scattered (where they have not as yet
been gathered up for sale) from the Upper Marias and Milk Rivers, near
the British boundary, to the Platte, and from the James River, in
central Dakota, to an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.
Indeed, as late as October, 1887, I gathered up on the open common,
within half a mile of the Northern Pacific Railway depot at the city of
Helena, the skull, horns, and numerous odd bones of a large bull buffalo
which had been killed there.

[Illustration: WHERE THE MILLIONS HAVE GONE. From a painting by J. H.
Moser in the National Museum.]

Over many portions of the northern range the traveler may even now ride
for days together without once being out of sight of buffalo
carcasses, or bones. Such was the case in 1886 in the country lying
between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, northwest of Miles City. Go
wherever we might, on divides, into bad lands, creek bottoms, or on the
highest plateaus, we always found the inevitable and omnipresent grim
and ghastly skeleton, with hairy head, dried-up and shriveled nostrils,
half-skinned legs stretched helplessly upon the gray turf, and the bones
of the body bleached white as chalk.

The year 1881 witnessed the same kind of a stampede for the northern
buffalo range that occurred just ten years previously in the south. At
that time robes were worth from two to three times as much as they ever
had been in the south, the market was very active, and the successful
hunter was sure to reap a rich reward as long as the buffaloes lasted.
At that time the hunters and hide-buyers estimated that there were five
hundred thousand buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City,
and that there were still in the entire northern herd not far from one
million head. The subsequent slaughter proved that these estimates were
probably not far from the truth. In that year Fort Custer was so nearly
overwhelmed by a passing herd that a detachment of soldiers was ordered
out to turn the herd away from the post. In 1882 an immense herd
appeared on the high, level plateau on the north side of the Yellowstone
which overlooks Miles City and Fort Keogh in the valley below. A squad
of soldiers from the Fifth Infantry was sent up on the bluff, and in
less than an hour had killed enough buffaloes to load six four-mule
teams with meat. In 1886 there were still about twenty bleaching
skeletons lying in a group on the edge of this plateau at the point
where the road from the ferry reaches the level, but all the rest had
been gathered up.

In 1882 there were, so it is estimated by men who were in the country,
no fewer than five thousand white hunters and skinners on the northern
range. Lieut. J. M. T. Partello declares that "a cordon of camps, from
the Upper Missouri, where it bends to the west, stretched toward the
setting sun as far as the dividing line of Idaho, completely blocking in
the great ranges of the Milk River, the Musselshell, Yellowstone, and
the Marias, and rendering it impossible for scarcely a single bison to
escape through the chain of sentinel camps to the Canadian northwest.
Hunters of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado drove the poor hunted animals
north, directly into the muzzles of the thousands of repeaters ready to
receive them. * * * Only a few short years ago, as late as 1883, a herd
of about seventy-five thousand crossed the Yellowstone River a few miles
south of here [Fort Keogh], scores of Indians, pot-hunters, and white
butchers on their heels, bound for the Canadian dominions, where they
hoped to find a haven of safety. Alas! not five thousand of that mighty
mass ever lived to reach the British border line."

It is difficult to say (at least to the satisfaction of old hunters)
which were the most famous hunting grounds on the northern range.
Lieutenant Partello states that when he hunted in the great triangle
bounded by the three rivers, Missouri, Musselshell, and Yellowstone, it
contained, to the best of his knowledge and belief, two hundred and
fifty thousand buffaloes. Unquestionably that region yielded an immense
number of buffalo robes, and since the slaughter _thousands of tons_ of
bones have been gathered up there. Another favorite locality was the
country lying between the Powder River and the Little Missouri,
particularly the valleys of Beaver and O'Fallon Creeks. Thither went
scores of "outfits" and hundreds of hunters and skinners from the
Northern Pacific Railway towns from Miles City to Glendive. The hunters
from the towns between Glendive and Bismarck mostly went south to Cedar
Creek and the Grand and Moreau Rivers. But this territory was also the
hunting ground of the Sioux Indians from the great reservation farther
south.

Thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were killed on the Milk and Marias
Rivers, in the Judith Basin, and in northern Wyoming.

The method of slaughter has already been fully described under the head
of "the still-hunt," and need not be recapitulated. It is some
gratification to know that the shocking and criminal wastefulness which
was so marked a feature of the southern butchery was almost wholly
unknown in the north. Robes were worth from $1.50 to $3.50, according to
size and quality, and were removed and preserved with great care. Every
one hundred robes marketed represented not more than one hundred and ten
dead buffaloes, and even this small percentage of loss was due to the
escape of wounded animals which afterward died and were devoured by the
wolves. After the skin was taken off the hunter or skinner stretched it
carefully upon the ground, inside uppermost, cut his initials in the
adherent subcutaneous muscle, and left it until the season for hauling
in the robes, which was always done in the early spring, immediately
following the hunt.

As was the case in the south, it was the ability of a single hunter to
destroy an entire bunch of buffalo in a single day that completely
annihilated the remaining thousands of the northern herd before the
people of the United States even learned what was going on. For example,
one hunter of my acquaintance, Vic. Smith, the most famous hunter in
Montana, killed one hundred and seven buffaloes in one "stand," in about
one hour's time, and without shifting his point of attack. This occurred
in the Red Water country, about 100 miles northeast of Miles City, in
the winter of 1881-'82. During the same season another hunter, named
"Doc." Aughl, killed eighty-five buffaloes at one "stand," and John
Edwards killed seventy-five. The total number that Smith claims to have
killed that season is "about five thousand." Where buffaloes were at all
plentiful, every man who called himself a hunter was expected to kill
between one and two thousand during the hunting season--from November to
February--and when the buffaloes were to be found it was a comparatively
easy thing to do.

During the year 1882 the thousands of bison that still remained alive
on the range indicated above, and also marked out on the accompanying
map, were distributed over that entire area very generally. In February
of that year a Fort Benton correspondent of _Forest and Stream_ wrote as
follows: "It is truly wonderful how many buffalo are still left.
Thousands of Indians and hundreds of white men depend on them for a
living. At present nearly all the buffalo in Montana are between Milk
River and Bear Paw Mountains. There are only a few small bands between
the Missouri and the Yellowstone." There were plenty of buffalo on the
Upper Marias River in October, 1882. In November and December there were
thousands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers. South of the
Northern Pacific Railway the range during the hunting season of 1882-'83
was thus defined by a hunter who has since written out the "Confessions
of a Buffalo Butcher" for _Forest and Stream_ (vol. xxiv, p. 489): "Then
[October, 1882] the western limit was defined in a general way by Powder
River, and extending eastward well toward the Missouri and south to
within 60 or 70 miles of the Black Hills. It embraces the valleys of all
tributaries to Powder River from the east, all of the valleys of Beaver
Creek, O'Fallon Creek, and the Little Missouri and Moreau Rivers, and
both forks of the Cannon Ball for almost half their length. This immense
territory, lying almost equally in Montana and Dakota, had been occupied
during the winters by many thousands of buffaloes from time immemorial,
and many of the cows remained during the summer and brought forth their
young undisturbed."

The three hunters composing the party whose record is narrated in the
interesting sketch referred to, went out from Miles City on October 23,
1882, due east to the bad lands between the Powder River and O'Fallon
Creek, and were on the range all winter. They found comparatively few
buffaloes, and secured only two hundred and eighty-six robes, which they
sold at an average price of $2.20 each. They saved and marketed a large
quantity of meat, for which they obtained 3 cents per pound. They found
the whole region in which they hunted fairly infested with Indians and
half-breeds, all hunting buffalo.

The hunting season which began in October, 1882, and ended in February,
1883, finished the annihilation of the great northern herd, and left but
a few small bauds of stragglers, numbering only a very few thousand
individuals all told. A noted event of the season was the retreat
northward across the Yellowstone of the immense herd mentioned by
Lieutenant Partello as containing seventy-five thousand head; others
estimated the number at fifty thousand; and the event is often spoken of
to-day by frontiersmen who were in that region at the time. Many think
that the whole great body went north into British territory, and that
there is still a goodly remnant of it in some remote region between the
Peace River and the Saskatchewan, or somewhere there, which will yet
return to the United States. Nothing could be more illusory than this
belief. In the first place, the herd never reached the British line,
and, if it had, it would have been promptly annihilated by the hungry
Blackfeet and Cree Indians, who were declared to be in a half-starved
condition, through the disappearance of the buffalo, as early as 1879.

The great herd that "went north" was utterly extinguished by the white
hunters along the Missouri River and the Indians living north of it. The
only vestige of it that remained was a band of about two hundred
individuals that took refuge in the labyrinth of ravines and creek
bottoms that lie west of the Musselshell between Flat Willow and Box
Elder Creeks, and another band of about seventy-five which settled in
the bad lands between the head of the Big Dry and Big Porcupine Creeks,
where a few survivors were found by the writer in 1886.

South of the Northern Pacific Railway, a band of about three hundred
settled permanently in and around the Yellowstone National Park, but in
a very short time every animal outside of the protected limits of the
park was killed, and whenever any of the park buffaloes strayed beyond
the boundary they too were promptly killed for their heads and hides. At
present the number remaining in the park is believed by Captain Harris,
the superintendent, to be about two hundred; about one-third of which is
due to breeding in the protected territory.

In the southeast the fate of that portion of the herd is well known. The
herd which at the beginning of the hunting season of 1883 was known to
contain about ten thousand head, and ranged in western Dakota, about
half way between the Black Hills and Bismarck, between the Moreau and
Grand Rivers, was speedily reduced to about one thousand head. Vic.
Smith, who was "in at the death," says there were eleven hundred, others
say twelve hundred. Just at this juncture (October, 1883) Sitting Bull
and his whole band of nearly one thousand braves arrived from the
Standing Sock Agency, and in two days' time slaughtered the entire herd.
Vic. Smith and a host of white hunters took part in the killing of this
last ten thousand, and he declares that "when we got through the hunt
there was not a hoof left. That wound up the buffalo in the Far West,
only a stray bull being seen here and there afterwards."

Curiously enough, not even the buffalo hunters themselves were at the
time aware of the fact that the end of the hunting season of 1882-'83
was also the end of the buffalo, at least as an inhabitant of the plains
and a source of revenue. In the autumn of 1883 they nearly all outfitted
as usual, often at an expense of many hundreds of dollars, and blithely
sought "the range" that had up to that time been so prolific in robes.
The end was in nearly every case the same--total failure and bankruptcy.
It was indeed hard to believe that not only the millions, but also the
thousands, had actually gone, and forever.

I have found it impossible to ascertain definitely the number of robes
and hides shipped from the northern range during the last years of the
slaughter, and the only reliable estimate I have obtained was made for
me, alter much consideration and reflection, by Mr. J. N. Davis, of
Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Davis was for many years a buyer of furs,
robes, and hides on a large scale throughout our Northwestern
Territories, and was actively engaged in buying up buffalo robes as long
as there were any to buy. In reply to a letter asking for statistics, he
wrote me as follows, on September 27, 1887:

"It is impossible to give the exact number of robes and hides shipped
out of Dakota and Montana from 1876 to 1883, or the exact number of
buffalo in the northern herd; but I will give you as correct an account
as any one can. In 1876 it was estimated that there were half a million
buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City. In 1881 the
Northern Pacific Railroad was built as far west as Glendive and Miles
City. At that time the whole country was a howling wilderness, and
Indians and wild buffalo were too numerous to mention. The first
shipment of buffalo robes, killed by white men, was made that year, and
the stations on the Northern Pacific Railroad between Miles City and
Mandan sent out about fifty thousand hides and robes. In 1882 the number
of hides and robes bought and shipped was about two hundred thousand,
and in 1883 forty thousand. In 1884 I shipped from Dickinson, Dakota
Territory, the only car load of robes that went East that year, and it
was the last shipment ever made."

For a long time the majority of the ex-hunters cherished the fond
delusion that the great herd had only "gone north" into the British
Possessions, and would eventually return in great force. Scores of
rumors of the finding of herds floated about, all of which were eagerly
believed at first. But after a year or two had gone by without the
appearance of a single buffalo, and likewise without any reliable
information of the existence of a herd of any size, even in British
territory, the butchers of the buffalo either hung up their old Sharps
rifles, or sold them for nothing to the gun-dealers, and sought other
means of livelihood. Some took to gathering up buffalo bones and selling
them by the ton, and others became cowboys.




IV. CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE BISON.


The slaughter of the buffalo down to the very point of extermination has
been so very generally condemned, and the general Government has been so
unsparingly blamed for allowing such a massacre to take place on the
public domain, it is important that the public should know all the facts
in the case. To the credit of Congress it must be said that several very
determined efforts were made between the years 1871 and 1876 looking
toward the protection of the buffalo. The failure of all those
well-meant efforts was due to our republican form of Government. Had
this Government been a monarchy the buffalo would have been protected;
but unfortunately in this case (perhaps the only one on record wherein a
king could have accomplished more than the representatives of the
people) the necessary act of Congress was so hedged in and beset by
obstacles that it never became an accomplished fact. Even when both
houses of Congress succeeded in passing a suitable act (June 23, 1874)
it went to the President in the last days of the session only to be
pigeon-holed, and die a natural death.

The following is a complete history of Congressional legislation in
regard to the protection of the buffalo from wanton slaughter and
ultimate extinction. The first step taken in behalf of this persecuted
animal was on March 13, 1871, when Mr. McCormick, of Arizona, introduced
a bill (H. R. 157), which was ordered to be printed. Nothing further was
done with it. It read as follows:

_Be it enacted, etc._, That, excepting for the purpose of using the meat
for food or preserving the akin, it shall be unlawful for any person to
kill the bison, or buffalo, found anywhere upon the public lands of the
United States; and for the violation of this law the offender shall,
upon conviction before any court of competent jurisdiction, be liable to
a fine of $100 for each animal killed, one-half of which sum shall, upon
its collection, be paid to the informer.

On February 14, 1872, Mr. Cole, of California, introduced in the Senate
the following resolution, which was considered by unanimous consent and
agreed to:

_Resolved_, That the Committee on Territories be directed to inquire
into the expediency of enacting a law for the protection of the buffalo,
elk, antelope, and other useful animals running wild in the Territories
of the United States against indiscriminate slaughter and extermination,
and that they report by bill or otherwise.

On February 16, 1872, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a bill in
the Senate (S. 655) restricting the killing of the buffalo upon the
public lauds; which was read twice by its title and referred to the
Committee on Territories.

On April 5, 1872, Mr. B. C. McCormick, of Arizona, made a speech in the
House of Representatives, while it was in Committee of the Whole, on the
restriction of the killing of buffalo.

He mentioned a then recent number of _Harper's Weekly_, in which were
illustrations of the slaughter of buffalo, and also read a partly
historical extract in regard to the same. He related how, when he was
once snow-bound upon the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the buffalo furnished
food for himself and fellow-passengers. Then he read the bill introduced
by him March 13, 1871, and also copies of letters furnished him by Henry
Bergh, president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals, which were sent to the latter by General W. B. Hazen, Lieut.
Col. A. G. Brackett, and E. W. Wynkoop. He also read a statement by
General Hazen to the effect that he knew of a man who killed ninety-nine
buffaloes with his own hand in one day. He also spoke on the subject of
cross-breeding the buffalo with common cattle, and read an extract in
regard to it from the San Francisco _Post_.[69]

[Note 69: Congressional Globe (Appendix), second session Forty-second
Congress.]

On April 6, 1872, Mr. McCormick asked leave to have printed in the
Globe some remarks he had prepared regarding restricting the killing of
buffalo, which was granted.[70]

[Note 70: Congressional Globe, April 6, 1872, Forty-second Congress,
second session.]

On January 5, 1874, Mr. Fort, of Illinois, introduced a bill (H. R. 921)
to prevent the useless slaughter of buffalo within the Territories of
the United States; which was read and referred to the Committee on the
Territories.[71]

[Note 71: Congressional Record, vol. 2, part 1, Forty-third Congress,
p. 371.]

On March 10, 1874, this bill was reported to the House from the
Committee on the Territories, with a recommendation that it be
passed.[72]

[Note 72: Congressional Record, vol. 2, part 3, Forty-third Congress,
first session, pp. 2105, 2109.]

The first section of the bill provided that it shall be unlawful for any
person, who is not an Indian, to kill, wound, or in any way destroy any
female buffalo of any age, found at large within the boundaries of any
of the Territories of the United States.

The second section provided that it shall be, in like manner, unlawful
for any such person to kill, wound, or destroy in said Territories any
greater number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such
person, or than can be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other
persons, or for the market. It shall in like manner be unlawful for any
such person, or persons, to assist, or be in any manner engaged or
concerned in or about such unlawful killing, wounding, or destroying of
any such buffaloes; that any person who shall violate the provisions of
the act shall, on conviction, forfeit and pay to the United States the
sum of $100 for each offense (and each buffalo so unlawfully killed,
wounded, or destroyed shall be and constitute a separate offense), and
on a conviction of a second offense may be committed to prison for a
period not exceeding thirty days; and that all United States judges,
justices, courts, and legal tribunals in said Territories shall have
jurisdiction in cases of the violation of the law.

Mr. Cox said he had been told by old hunters that it was impossible to
tell the sex of a running buffalo; and he also stated that the bill gave
preference to the Indians.

Mr. Fort said the object was to prevent early extermination; that
thousands were annually slaughtered for skins alone, and thousands for
their tongues alone; that perhaps hundreds of thousands are killed every
year in utter wantonness, with no object for such destruction. He had
been told that the sexes could be distinguished while they were
running.[73]

[Note 73: I know of no greater affront that could be offered to the
intelligence of a genuine buffalo-hunter than to accuse him of not
knowing enough to tell the sex of a buffalo "on the run" by its form
alone.--W. T. H.]

This bill does not prohibit any person joining in a reasonable chase and
hunt of the buffalo.

Said Mr. Fort, "So far as I am advised, gentlemen upon this floor
representing all the Territories are favorable to the passage of this
bill."

Mr. Cox wanted the clause excepting the Indians from the operations of
the bill stricken out, and stated that the Secretary of the Interior had
already said to the House that the civilization of the Indian was
Impossible while the buffalo remained on the plains.

The Clerk read for Mr. McCormick the following extract from the _New
Mexican_, a paper published in Santa Fé:

The buffalo slaughter, which has been going on the past few years on the
plains, and which increases every year, is wantonly wicked, and should
be stopped by the most stringent enactments and most vigilant
enforcements of the law. Killing these noble animals for their hides
simply, or to gratify the pleasure of some Russian duke or English lord,
is a species of vandalism which can not too quickly be checked. United
States surveying parties report that there are two thousand hunters on
the plains killing these animals for their hides. One party of sixteen
hunters report having killed twenty-eight thousand buffaloes during the
past summer. It seems to us there is quite as much reason why the
Government should protect the buffaloes as the Indians.

Mr. McCormick considered the subject important, and had not a doubt of
the fearful slaughter. He read the following extract from a letter that
he had received from General Hazen:

I know a man who killed with his own hand ninety-nine buffaloes in one
day, without taking a pound of the meat. The buffalo for food has an
intrinsic value about equal to an average Texas beef, or say $20. There
are probably not less than a million of these animals on the western
plains. If the Government owned a herd of a million oxen they would at
least take steps to prevent this wanton slaughter. The railroads have
made the buffalo so accessible as to present a case not dissimilar.

He agreed with Mr. Cox that some features of the bill would probably be
impracticable, and moved to amend it. He did not believe any bill would
entirely accomplish the purpose, but he desired that such wanton
slaughter should be stopped.

Said he, "It would have been well both for the Indians and the white men
if an enactment of this kind had been placed on our statute-books years
ago. * * * I know of no one act that would gratify the red men more."

Mr. Holman expressed surprise that Mr. Cox should make any objection to
parts of the measure. The former regarded the bill as "an effort in a
most commendable direction," and trusted that it would pass.

Mr. Cox said he would not have objected to the bill but from the fact
that it was partial in its provisions. He wanted a bill that would
impose a penalty on every man, red, white, or black, who may wantonly
kill these buffaloes.

Mr. Potter desired to know whether more buffaloes were slaughtered by
the Indians than by white men.

Mr. Fort thought the white men were doing the greatest amount of
killing.

Mr. Eldridge thought there would be just as much propriety in killing
the fish in our rivers as in destroying the buffalo in order to compel
the Indians to become civilized.

Mr. Conger said: "As a matter of fact, every man knows the range of the
buffalo has grown more and more confined year after year; that they have
been driven westward before advancing civilization." But he opposed the
bill!

Mr. Hawley, of Connecticut, said: "I am glad to see this bill. I am in
favor of this law, and hope it will pass."

Mr. Lowe favored the bill, and thought that the buffalo ought to be
protected for proper utility.

Mr. Cobb thought they ought to be protected for the settlers, who
depended partly on them for food.

Mr. Parker, of Missouri, intimated that the policy of the Secretary of
the Interior was a sound one, and that the buffaloes ought to be
exterminated, to prevent difficulties in civilizing the Indians.

Said Mr. Conger, "I do not think the measure will tend at all to protect
the buffalo."

Mr. McCormick replied: "This bill will not prevent the killing of
buffaloes for any useful purpose, but only their wanton destruction."

Mr. Kasson said: "I wish to say one word in support of this bill,
because I have had some experience as to the manner in which these
buffaloes are treated by hunters. The buffalo is a creature of vast
utility, * * *. This animal ought to be protected; * * *."

The question being taken on the passage of the bill, there were--ayes
132, noes not counted.

So the bill was passed.

On June 23, 1874, this bill (H. R. 921) came up in the Senate.[74]

[Note 74: Congressional Globe, Vol. 2, part 6, Forty-third Congress,
first session.]

Mr. Harvey moved, as an amendment, to strike out the words "who is not
an Indian."

Said Mr. Hitchcock, "That will defeat the bill."

Mr. Frelinghuysen said: "That would prevent the Indians from killing the
buffalo on their own ground. I object to the bill."

Mr. Sargent said: "I think we can pass the bill in the right shape
without objection. Let us take it up. It is a very important one."

Mr. Frelinghuysen withdrew his objection.

Mr. Harvey thought it was a very important bill, and withdrew his
amendment.

The bill was reported to the Senate, ordered to a third reading, read
the third time, and passed. It went to President Grant for signature,
and expired in his hands at the adjournment of that session of Congress.

On February 2, 1874, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 1689) to tax
buffalo hides; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

On June 10, 1874, Mr. Dawes, from the Committee on Ways and Means,
reported back the bill adversely, and moved that it be laid on the
table.

Mr. Fort asked to have the bill referred to the Committee of the
Whole, and it was so referred.

On February 2, 1874, Mr. R. C. McCormick, of Arizona, introduced in the
House a bill (H. R. 1728) restricting the killing of the bison, or
buffalo, on the public lands; which was referred to the Committee on the
Public Lands, and never heard of more.

On January 31, 1876, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 1719) to prevent
the useless slaughter of buffaloes within the Territories of the United
States, which was referred to the Committee on the Territories.[75]

[Note 75: Forty-fourth Congress, first session, vol. 4, part 2, pp.
1237-1241.]

The Committee on the Territories reported back the bill without
amendment on February 23, 1876.[76] Its provisions were in every respect
identical with those of the bill introduced by Mr. Fort in 1874, and
which passed both houses.

[Note 76: Forty-fourth Congress first session, vol. 4, part 1, p. 773.]

In support of it Mr. Fort said: "The intention and object of this bill
is to preserve them [the buffaloes] for the use of the Indians, whose
homes are upon the public domain, and to the frontiersmen, who may
properly use them for food. * * * They have been and are now being
slaughtered in large numbers. * * * Thousands of these noble brutes are
annually slaughtered out of mere wontonness. * * * This bill, just as it
is now presented, passed the last Congress. It was not vetoed, but fell,
as I understand, merely for want of time to consider it after having
passed both houses." He also intimated that the Government was using a
great deal of money for cattle to furnish the Indians, while the buffalo
was being wantonly destroyed, whereas they might be turned to their
good.

Mr. Crounse wanted the words "who is not an Indian" struck out, so as to
make the bill general. He thought Indians were to blame for the wanton
destruction.

Mr. Fort thought the amendment unnecessary, and stated that he was
informed that the Indians did not destroy the buffaloes wantonly.

Mr. Dunnell thought the bill one of great importance.

The Clerk read for him a letter from A. G. Brackett, lieutenant-colonel,
Second United States Cavalry, stationed at Omaha Barracks, in which was
a very urgent request to have Congress interfere to prevent the
wholesale slaughter then going on.

Mr. Reagan thought the bill proper and right. He knew from personal
experience how the wanton slaughtering was going on, and also that the
Indians were _not_ the ones who did it.

Mr. Townsend, of New York, saw no reason why a white man should not be
allowed to kill a female buffalo as well as an Indian. He said it would
be impracticable to have a separate law for each.

Mr. Maginnis did not agree with him. He thought the bill ought to pass
as it stood.

Mr. Throckmorton thought that while the intention of the bill was a
good one, yet it was mischievous and difficult to enforce, and would
also work hardship to a large portion of our frontier people. He had
several objections. He also thought a cow buffalo could not be
distinguished at a distance.

Mr. Hancock, of Texas, thought the bill an impolicy, and that the sooner
the buffalo was exterminated the better.

Mr. Fort replied by asking him why all the game--deer, antelope,
etc.--was not slaughtered also. Then he went on to state that to
exterminate the buffalo would be to starve innocent children of the red
man, and to make the latter more wild and savage than he was already.

Mr. Baker, of Indiana, offered the following amendment as a substitute
for the one already offered:

_Provided_, That any white person who shall employ, hire, or procure,
directly or indirectly, any Indian to kill any buffalo forbidden to be
killed by this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished
in the manner provided in this act.

Mr. Fort stated that a certain clause in his bill covered the object of
the amendment.

Mr. Jenks offered the following amendment:

Strike out in the fourth line of the second section the word "can" and
insert "shall;" and in the second line of the same section insert the
word "wantonly" before "kill;" so that the clause will read:

"That it shall be in like manner unlawful for any such person to
wantonly kill, wound, or destroy in the said Territories any greater
number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such person, or
than shall be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other persons,
or for the market."

Mr. Conger said: "I think the whole bill is unwise. I think it is a
useless measure."

Mr. Hancock said: "I move that the bill and amendment be laid on the
table."

The motion to lay the bill upon the table was defeated, and the
amendment was rejected.

Mr. Conger called for a division on the passage of the bill. The House
divided, and there were--ayes 93, noes 48. He then demanded tellers, and
they reported--ayes 104, noes 36. So the bill was passed.

On February 25, 1876, the bill was reported to the Senate, and referred
to the Committee on Territories, from whence it never returned.

On March 20, 1876, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 2767) to tax
buffalo hides; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means,
and never heard of afterward.

This was the last move made in Congress in behalf of the buffalo. The
philanthropic friends of the frontiersman, the Indian, and of the
buffalo himself, despaired of accomplishing the worthy object for which
they had so earnestly and persistently labored, and finally gave up the
fight. At the very time the effort in behalf of buffalo protection was
abandoned the northern herd still flourished, and might have been
preserved from extirpation.

At various times the legislatures of a few of the Western States and
Territories enacted laws vaguely and feebly intended to provide some
sort of protection to the fast disappearing animals. One of the first
was the game law of Colorado, passed in 1872, which declared that the
killers of game should not leave any flesh to spoil. The western game
laws of those days amounted to about as much as they do now; practically
nothing at all. I have never been able to learn of a single instance,
save in the Yellowstone Park, wherein a western hunter was prevented by
so simple and innocuous a thing as a game law from killing game. Laws
were enacted, but they were always left to enforce themselves. The idea
of the frontiersman (the average, at least) has always been to kill as
much game as possible before some other fellow gets a chance at it, _and
before it is all killed off_! So he goes at the game, and as a general
thing kills all he can while it lasts, and with it feeds himself and
family, his dogs, and even his hogs, to repletion. I knew one Montana
man north of Miles City who killed for his own use twenty-six black-tail
deer in one season, and had so much more venison than he could consume
or give away that a great pile of carcasses lay in his yard until spring
and spoiled.

During the existence of the buffalo it was declared by many an
impossibility to stop or prevent the slaughter. Such an accusation of
weakness and imbecility on the part of the General Government is an
insult to our strength and resources. The protection of game is now and
always has been simply a question of money. A proper code of game laws
and a reasonable number of salaried game-wardens, sworn to enforce them
and punish all offenses against them, would have afforded the buffalo as
much protection as would have been necessary to his continual existence.
To be sure, many buffaloes would have been killed on the sly in spite of
laws to the contrary, but it was wholesale slaughter that wrought the
extermination, and that could easily have been prevented. A tax of 50
cents each on buffalo robes would have maintained a sufficient number of
game-wardens to have reasonably regulated the killing, and maintained
for an indefinite period a bountiful source of supply of food, and also
raiment for both the white man of the plains and the Indian. By
judicious management the buffalo could have been made to yield an annual
revenue equal to that we now receive from the fur-seals--$100,000 per
year.

During the two great periods of slaughter--1870-'75 and 1880-'84--the
principal killing grounds were as well known as the stock-yards of
Chicago. Had proper laws been enacted, and had either the general or
territorial governments entered with determination upon the task of
restricting the killing of buffaloes to proper limits, their enforcement
would have been, in the main, as simple and easy as the collection of
taxes. Of course the solitary hunter in a remote locality would have
bowled over his half dozen buffaloes in secure defiance of the law; but
such desultory killing could not have made much impression on the great
mass for many years. The business-like, wholesale slaughter, wherein
one hunter would openly kill five thousand buffaloes and market perhaps
two thousand hides, could easily have been stopped forever. Buffalo
hides could not have been dealt in clandestinely, for many reasons, and
had there been no sale for ill-gotten spoils the still-hunter would have
gathered no spoils to sell. It was an undertaking of considerable
magnitude, and involving a cash outlay of several hundred dollars to
make up an "outfit" of wagons, horses, arms and ammunition, food, etc.,
for a trip to "the range" after buffaloes. It was these wholesale
hunters, both in the North and the South, who exterminated the species,
and to say that all such undertakings could not have been effectually
prevented by law is to accuse our law-makers and law-officers of
imbecility to a degree hitherto unknown. There is nowhere in this
country, nor in any of the waters adjacent to it, a living species of
any kind which the United States Government can not fully and
perpetually protect from destruction by human agencies if it chooses to
do so. The destruction of the buffalo was a loss of wealth perhaps
twenty times greater than the sum it would have cost to conserve it, and
this stupendous waste of valuable food and other products was committed
by one class of the American people and permitted by another with a
prodigality and wastefulness which even in the lowest savages would be
inexcusable.




V. COMPLETENESS OF THE EXTERMINATION.

(May 1, 1889.)

Although the existence of a few widely-scattered individuals enables us
to say that the bison is not yet absolutely extinct in a wild state,
there is no reason to hope that a single wild and unprotected individual
will remain alive ten years hence. The nearer the species approaches to
complete extermination, the more eagerly are the wretched fugitives
pursued to the death whenever found. Western hunters are striving for
the honor (?) of killing the last buffalo, which, it is to be noted, has
already been slain about a score of times by that number of hunters.

The buffaloes still alive in a wild state are so very few, and have been
so carefully "marked down" by hunters, it is possible to make a very
close estimate of the total number remaining. In this enumeration the
small herd in the Yellowstone National Park is classed with other herds
in captivity and under protection, for the reason that, had it not been
for the protection afforded by the law and the officers of the Park, not
one of these buffaloes would be living to-day. Were the restrictions of
the law removed now, every one of those animals would be killed within
three months. Their heads alone are worth from $25 to $50 each to
taxidermists, and for this reason every buffalo is a prize worth the
hunter's winning. Had it not been for stringent laws, and a rigid
enforcement of them by Captain Harris, the last of the Park buffaloes
would have been shot years ago by Vic. Smith, the Rea Brothers, and
other hunters, of whom there is always an able contingent around the
Park.

In the United States the death of a buffalo is now such an event that it
is immediately chronicled by the Associated Press and telegraphed all
over the country. By reason of this, and from information already in
hand, we are able to arrive at a very fair understanding of the present
condition of the species in a wild state.

In December, 1886, the Smithsonian expedition left about fifteen
buffaloes alive in the bad lands of the Missouri-Yellowstone divide, at
the head of Big Porcupine Creek. In 1887 three of these were killed by
cowboys, and in 1888 two more, the last death recorded being that of an
old bull killed near Billings. There are probably eight or ten
stragglers still remaining in that region, hiding in the wildest and
most broken tracts of the bad lands, as far as possible from the cattle
ranches, and where even cowboys seldom go save on a round-up. From the
fact that no other buffaloes, at least so far as can be learned, have
been killed in Montana during the last two years, I am convinced that
the bunch referred to are the last representatives of the species
remaining in Montana.

In the spring of 1886 Mr. B. C. Winston, while on a hunting trip about
75 miles west of Grand Rapids, Dakota, saw seven buffaloes--five adult
animals and two calves; of which he killed one, a large bull, and caught
a calf alive. On September 11, 1888, a solitary bull was killed 3 miles
from the town of Oakes, in Dickey County. There are still three
individuals in the unsettled country lying between that point and the
Missouri, which are undoubtedly the only wild representatives of the
race east of the Missouri River.

On April 28, 1887, Dr. William Stephenson, of the United States Army,
wrote me as follows from Pilot Butte, about 30 miles north of Rock
Springs, Wyoming:

"There are undoubtedly buffalo within 50 or 60 miles of here, two having
been killed out of a band of eighteen some ten days since by cowboys,
and another band of four seen near there. I hear from cattlemen of their
being seen every year north and northeast of here."

This band was seen once in 1888. In February, 1889, Hon. Joseph M.
Carey, member of Congress from Wyoming, received a letter informing him
that this band of buffaloes, consisting of twenty-six head, had been
seen grazing in the Red Desert of Wyoming, and that the Indians were
preparing to attack it. At Judge Carey's request the Indian Bureau
issued orders which it was hoped would prevent the slaughter. So, until
further developments, we have the pleasure of recording the presence of
twenty-six wild buffaloes in southern Wyoming.

There are no buffaloes whatever in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Park,
either in Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho, save what wander out of that
reservation, and when any do, they are speedily killed.

There is a rumor that there are ten or twelve mountain buffaloes still
on foot in Colorado, in a region called Lost Park, and, while it lacks
confirmation, we gladly accept it as a fact. In 1888 Mr. C. B. Cory, of
Boston, saw in Denver, Colorado, eight fresh buffalo skins, which it was
said had come from the region named above. In 1885 there was a herd of
about forty "mountain buffalo" near South Park, and although some of the
number may still survive, the indications are that the total number of
wild buffaloes in Colorado does not exceed twenty individuals.

In Texas a miserable remnant of the great southern herd still remains in
the "Pan-handle country," between the two forks of the Canadian River.
In 1886 about two hundred head survived, which number by the summer of
1887 had been reduced to one hundred, or less. In the hunting season of
1887-'88 a ranchman named Lee Howard fitted out and led a strong party
into the haunts of the survivors, and killed fifty-two of them. In May,
1888, Mr. C. J. Jones again visited this region for the purpose of
capturing buffaloes alive. His party found, from first to last,
thirty-seven buffaloes, of which they captured eighteen head, eleven
adult cows and seven calves; the greatest feat ever accomplished in
buffalo-hunting. It is highly probable that Mr. Jones and his men saw
about all the buffaloes now living in the Pan-handle country, and it
therefore seems quite certain that not over twenty-five individuals
remain. These are so few, so remote, and so difficult to reach, it is to
be hoped no one will consider them worth going after, and that they will
be left to take care of themselves. It is greatly to be regretted that
the State of Texas does not feel disposed to make a special effort for
their protection and preservation.

In regard to the existence of wild buffaloes in the British Possessions,
the statements of different authorities are at variance, by far the
larger number holding the opinion that there are in all the Northwest
Territory only a few almost solitary stragglers. But there is still good
reason for the hope, and also the belief, that there still remain in
Athabasca, between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers, at least a few
hundred "wood buffalo." In a very interesting and well-considered
article in the London _Field_ of November 10, 1888, Mr. Miller Christy
quotes all the available positive evidence bearing on this point, and I
gladly avail myself of the opportunity to reproduce it here:

"The Hon. Dr. Schulz, in the recent debate on the Mackenzie River basin,
in the Canadian senate, quoted Senator Hardisty, of Edmonton, of the
Hudson's Bay Company, to the effect that the wood buffalo still existed
in the region in question. 'It was,' he said, 'difficult to estimate how
many; but probably five or six hundred still remain in scattered bands.'
There had been no appreciable difference in their numbers, he thought,
during the last fifteen years, as they could not be hunted on horseback,
on account of the wooded character of the country, and were, therefore,
very little molested. They are larger than the buffalo of the great
plains, weighing at least 150 pounds more. They are also coarser haired
and straighter horned.

"The doctor also quoted Mr. Frank Oliver, of Edmonton, to the effect
that the wood buffalo still exists in small numbers between the Lower
Peace and Great Slave Rivers, extending westward from the latter to the
Salt River in latitude 60 degrees, and also between the Peace and
Athabasca Rivers. He states that 'they are larger than the prairie
buffalo, and the fur is darker, but practically they are the same
animal.' ...Some buffalo meat is brought in every winter to the Hudson's
Bay Company's posts nearest the buffalo ranges.

"Dr. Schulz further stated that he had received the following testimony
from Mr. Donald Ross, of Edmonton: The wood buffalo still exists in the
localities named. About 1870 one was killed as far west on Peace River
as Port Dunvegan. They are quite different from the prairie buffalo,
being nearly double the size, as they will dress fully 700 pounds."

It will be apparent to most observers, I think, that Mr. Ross's
statement in regard to the size of the wood buffalo is a random shot.

In a private letter to the writer, under date of October 22, 1887, Mr.
Harrison S. Young, of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Edmonton,
writes as follows:

"The buffalo are not yet extinct in the Northwest. There are still some
stray ones on the prairies away to the south of this, but they must be
very few. I am unable to find any one who has personal knowledge of the
killing of one during the last two years, though I have since the
receipt of your letter questioned a good many half-breeds on the
subject. In our district of Athabasca, along the Salt River, there are
still a few wood buffalo killed every year, but they are fast
diminishing in numbers and are also becoming very shy."

In his "Manitoba and the Great Northwest" Prof. John Macoun has this to
say regarding the presence of the wood buffalo in the region referred
to:

"The wood buffalo, when I was on the Peace River in 1875, were confined
to the country lying between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers north of
latitude 57° 30', or chiefly in the Birch Hills. They were also said to
be in some abundance on the Salt and Hay Rivers, running into the Save
River north of Peace River. The herds thirteen years ago [now nineteen]
were supposed to number about one thousand, all told. I believe many
still exist, as the Indians of that region eat fish, which are much
easier procured than either buffalo or moose, and the country is much
too difficult for white men."

All this evidence, when carefully considered, resolves itself into
simply this and no more: The only evidence in favor of the existence of
any live buffaloes between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers is in the form
of very old rumors, most of them nearly fifteen years old; time enough
for the Indians to have procured fire-arms in abundance and killed all
those buffaloes two or three times over.

Mr. Miller Christy takes "the mean of the estimates," and assumes that
there are now about five hundred and fifty buffaloes in the region
named. If we are to believe in the existence there of any stragglers his
estimate is a fair one, and we will gladly accept it. The total is
therefore as follows:

+-------------------------------------------------+
| _Number of American bison running wild          |
|  and unprotected on January 1, 1889._           |
+-------------------------------------------------+
|In the Pan-handle of Texas                   | 25|
|In Colorado                                  | 20|
|In southern Wyoming                          | 26|
|In the Musselshell country, Montana          | 10|
|In western Dakota                            |  4|
|                                             |---|
|    Total number in the United States        | 85|
|In Athabasca, Northwest Territory (estimated)|550|
|                                             |---|
|    Total in all North America               |635|
+-------------------------------------------------+

Add to the above the total number already recorded in captivity (256)
and those under Government protection in the Yellowstone Park (200), and
the whole number of individuals of _Bison americanus_ now living is
1,091.

From this time it is probable that many rumors of the sudden appearance
of herds of buffaloes will become current. Already there have been three
or four that almost deserve special mention. The first appeared in
March, 1887, when various Western newspapers published a circumstantial
account of how a herd of about three hundred buffaloes swam the Missouri
River about 10 miles above Bismarck, near the town of Painted Woods, and
ran on in a southwesterly direction. A letter of inquiry, addressed to
Mr. S. A. Peterson, postmaster at Painted Woods, elicited the following
reply:

"The whole rumor is false, and without any foundation. I saw it first in
the ---- newspaper, where I believe it originated."

In these days of railroads and numberless hunting parties, there is not
the remotest possibility of there being anywhere in the United States a
herd of a hundred, or even fifty, buffaloes which has escaped
observation. Of the eighty-five head still existing in a wild state it
may safely be predicted that not even one will remain alive five years
hence. A buffalo is now so great a prize, and by the ignorant it is
considered so great an honor(!) to kill one, that extraordinary
exertions will be made to find and shoot down without mercy the "last
buffalo."

There is no possible chance for the race to be perpetuated in a wild
state, and in a few years more hardly a bone will remain above ground to
mark the existence of the must prolific mammalian species that ever
existed, so far as we know.




VI. EFFECTS OF THE EXTERMINATION.


The buffalo supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding,
saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and
ornament In the United States a paternal government takes the place of
the buffalo in supplying all these wants of the red man, and it costs
several millions of dollars annually to accomplish the task.

The following are the tribes which depended very largely--some almost
wholly--upon the buffalo for the necessities, and many of the luxuries,
of their savage life until the Government began to support them:

+------------------------------------+
|Sioux                        |30,561|
|Crow                         | 3,226|
|Piegan, Blood, and Blackfeet | 2,026|
|Cheyenne                     | 3,477|
|Gros Ventres                 |   856|
|Arickaree                    |   517|
|Mandan                       |   283|
|Bannack and Shoshone         | 2,001|
|Nez Percé                    | 1,460|
|Assinniboine                 | 1,688|
|Kiowas and Comanches         | 2,756|
|Arapahoes                    | 1,217|
|Apache                       |   332|
|Ute                          |   978|
|Omaha                        | 1,160|
|Pawnee                       |   998|
|Winnebago                    | 1,222|
|                             |------|
|    Total                    |54,758|
+------------------------------------+

This enumeration (from the census of 1886) leaves entirely out of
consideration many thousands of Indians living in the Indian Territory
and other portions of the Southwest, who drew an annual supply of meat
and robes from the chase of the buffalo, notwithstanding the fact that
their chief dependence was upon agriculture.

The Indians of what was once the buffalo country are not starving and
freezing, for the reason that the United States Government supplies them
regularly with beef and blankets in lieu of buffalo. Does any one
imagine that the Government could not have regulated the killing of
buffaloes, and thus maintained the supply, for far less money than it
now costs to feed and clothe those 54,758 Indians!

How is it with the Indians of the British Possessions to-day?

Prof. John Maconn writes as follows in his "Manitoba and the Great
Northwest," page 342:

"During the last three years [prior to 1883] the great herds have been
kept south of our boundary, and, as the result of this, our Indians have
been on the verge of starvation. When the hills were covered with
countless thousands [of buffaloes] in 1877, the Blackfeet were dying of
starvation in 1879."

During the winter of 1886-'87, destitution and actual starvation
prevailed to an alarming extent among certain tribes of Indians in the
Northwest Territory who once lived bountifully on the buffalo. A
terrible tale of suffering in the Athabasca and Peace River country has
recently (1888) come to the minister of the interior of the Canadian
government, in the form of a petition signed by the bishop of that
diocese, six clergymen and missionaries, and several justices of the
peace. It sets forth that "owing to the destruction of game, the
Indians, both last winter and last summer, have been in a state of
starvation. They are now in a complete state of destitution, and are
utterly unable to provide themselves with clothing, shelter, ammunition,
or food for the coming winter." The petition declares that on account of
starvation, and consequent cannibalism, a party of twenty-nine Cree
Indians was reduced to three in the winter of 1886.[77] Of the Fort
Chippewyan Indians, between twenty and thirty starved to death last
winter, and the death of many more was hastened by want of food and by
famine diseases. Many other Indians--Crees, Beavers, and Chippewyans--at
almost all points where there are missions or trading posts, would
certainly have starved to death but for the help given them by the
traders and missionaries at those places. It is now declared by the
signers of the memorial that scores of families, having lost their heads
by starvation, are now perfectly helpless, and during the coming winter
must either starve to death or eat one another unless help comes.
Heart-rending stories of suffering and cannibalism continue to come in
from what was once the buffalo plains.

[Note 77: It was the Cree Indians who used to practice impounding
buffaloes, slaughtering a penful of two hundred head at a time with most
fiendish glee, and leaving all but the very choicest of the meat to
putrefy.]

If ever thoughtless people were punished for their reckless
improvidence, the Indians and half-breeds of the Northwest Territory are
now paying the penalty for the wasteful slaughter of the buffalo a few
short years ago. The buffalo is his own avenger, to an extent his
remorseless slayers little dreamed he ever could be.




VII. PRESERVATION OF THE SPECIES FROM ABSOLUTE EXTINCTION.


There is reason to fear that unless the United States Government takes
the matter in hand and makes a special effort to prevent it, the
pure-blood bison will be lost irretrievably through mixture with
domestic breeds and through in-and-in breeding.

The fate of the Yellowstone Park herd is, to say the least, highly
uncertain. A distinguished Senator, who is deeply interested in
legislation for the protection of the National Park reservation, has
declared that the pressure from railway corporations, which are seeking
a foot-hold in the park, has become so great and so aggressive that he
fears the park will "eventually be broken up." In any such event, the
destruction of the herd of park buffaloes would be one of the very first
results. If the park is properly maintained, however, it is to be hoped
that the buffaloes now in it will remain there and increase
indefinitely.

As yet there are only two captive buffaloes in the possession of the
Government, viz, those in the Department of Living Animals of the
National Museum, presented by Hon. E. G. Blackford, of New York. The
buffaloes now in the Zoological Gardens of the country are but few in
number, and unless special pains be taken to prevent it, by means of
judicious exchanges, from time to time, these will rapidly deteriorate
in size, and within a comparatively short time run out entirely, through
continued in-and-in breeding. It is said that even the wild aurochs in
the forests of Lithuania are decreasing in size and, in number from this
cause.

With private owners of captive buffaloes, the temptations to produce
cross-breeds will be so great that it is more than likely the breeding
of pure-blood buffaloes will be neglected. Indeed, unless some stockman
like Mr. C. J. Jones takes particular pains to protect his full blood
buffaloes, and keep the breed absolutely pure, in twenty years there
will not be a pure-blood animal of that species on any stock farm in
this country. Under existing conditions, the constant tendency of the
numerous domestic forms is to absorb and utterly obliterate the few wild
ones.

If we may judge from the examples set as by European governments, it is
clearly the duty of our Government to act in this matter, and act
promptly, with a degree of liberality and promptness which can not be
otherwise than highly gratifying to every American citizen and every
friend of science throughout the world. The Fiftieth Congress, at its
last session, responded to the call made upon it, and voted $200,000 for
the establishment of a National Zoological Park in the District of
Columbia on a grand scale. One of the leading purposes it is destined to
serve is the preservation and breeding in comfortable, and so far as
space is concerned, luxurious captivity of a number of fine specimens of
every species of American quadruped now threatened with
extermination.[78]

[Note 78: It is indeed an unbounded satisfaction to be able to now
record the fact that this important task, in which every American
citizen has a personal interest, is actually to be undertaken. Last year
we could only way it ought to be undertaken. In its accomplishment, the
Government expects the co-operation of private individuals all over the
country in the form of gifts of desirable living animals, for no
government could afford to purchase all the animals necessary for a
great Zoological Garden, provide for their wants in a liberal way, and
yet give the public free access to the collection, as is to be given to
the National Zoological Park.]

At least eight or ten buffaloes of pure breed should be secured very
soon by the Zoological Park Commission, by gift if possible, and cared
for with special reference to keeping the breed absolutely pure, and
_keeping the herd from deteriorating and dying out through in-and-in
breeding_.

The total expense would be trifling in comparison with the importance of
the end to be gained, and in that way we might, in a small measure,
atone for our neglect of the means which would have protected the great
herds from extinction. In this way, by proper management, it will be not
only possible but easy to preserve fine living representatives of this
important species for centuries to come.

The result of continuing in-breeding is certain extinction. Its progress
may be so slow as to make no impression upon the mind of a herd-owner,
but the end is only a question of time. The fate of a majority of the
herds of British wild cattle (_Bos urus_) warn us what to expect with
the American bison under similar circumstances. Of the fourteen herds of
wild cattle which were in existence in England and Scotland during the
early part of the present century, direct descendants of the wild herds
found in Great Britain, nine have become totally extinct through in
breeding.

The five herds remaining are those at Somerford Park, Blickling Hall,
Woodbastwick, Chartley, and Chillingham.




PART III.--THE SMITHSONIAN EXPEDITION FOR MUSEUM SPECIMENS.




I. THE EXPLORATION.


During the first three months of the year 1886 it was ascertained by the
writer, then chief taxidermist of the National Museum, that the
extermination of the American bison had made most alarming progress. By
extensive correspondence it was learned that the destruction of all the
large herds, both North and South, was already an accomplished fact.
While it was generally supposed that at least a few thousand individuals
still inhabited the more remote and inaccessible regions of what once
constituted the great northern buffalo range, it was found that the
actual number remaining in the whole United States was probably less
than three hundred.

By some authorities who were consulted it was considered an
impossibility to procure a large series of specimens anywhere in this
country, while others asserted positively that there were no wild
buffaloes south of the British possessions save those in the Yellowstone
National Park. Canadian authorities asserted with equal positiveness
that none remained in their territory.

A careful inventory of the specimens in the collection of the National
Museum revealed the fact that, with the exception of one mounted female
skin, another unmounted, and one mounted skeleton of a male buffalo, the
Museum was actually without presentable specimens of this most important
and interesting mammal.

Besides those mentioned above, the collection contained only two old,
badly mounted, and dilapidated skins, (one of which had been taken in
summer, and therefore was not representative), an incomplete skeleton,
some fragmentary skulls of no value, and two mounted heads. Thus it
appeared that the Museum was unable to show a series of specimens, good
or bad, or even one presentable male of good size.

In view of this alarming state of affairs, coupled with the already
declared extinction of _Bison americanus_, the Secretary of the
Smithsonian Institution, Prof. Spencer F. Baird, determined to send a
party into the field at once to find wild buffalo, if any were still
living, and in case any were found to collect a number of specimens.
Since it seemed highly uncertain whether any other institution, or any
private individual, would have the opportunity to collect a large supply
of specimens before it became too late, it was decided by the Secretary
that the Smithsonian Institution should undertake the task of providing
for the future as liberally as possible. For the benefit of the smaller
scientific museums of the country, and for others which will come into
existence during the next half century, it was resolved to collect at
all hazards, in case buffalo could be found, between eighty and one
hundred specimens of various kinds, of which from twenty to thirty
should be skins, an equal number should be complete skeletons, and of
skulls at least fifty.

In view of the great scarcity of buffalo and the general belief that it
might be a work of some months to find any specimens, even if it were
possible to find any at all, it was determined not to risk the success
of the undertaking by delaying it until the regular autumn hunting
season, but to send a party into the field at once to prosecute a
search. It was resolved to discover at all hazards the whereabouts of
any buffalo that might still remain in this country in a wild state,
and, if possible, to reach them before the shedding of their winter
pelage. It very soon became apparent, however, that the latter would
prove an utter impossibility.

Late in the month of April a letter was received from Dr. J. C. Merrill,
United States Army, dated at Huntley, Montana, giving information of
reports that buffalo were still to be found in three localities in the
Northwest, viz: on the headwaters of the Powder River, Wyoming; in
Judith Basin, Montana; and on Big Dry Creek, also in Montana. The
reports in regard to the first two localities proved to be erroneous. It
was ascertained to a reasonable certainty that there still existed in
southwestern Dakota a small band of six or eight wild buffaloes, while
from the Pan-handle of Texas there came reports of the existence there,
in small scattered hands, of about two hundred head. The buffalo known
to be in Dakota were far too few in number to justify a long and
expensive search, while those in Texas, on the Canadian River, were too
difficult to reach to make it advisable to hunt them save as a last
resort. It was therefore decided to investigate the localities named in
the Northwest.

Through the courtesy of the Secretary of War, an order was sent to the
officer commanding the Department of Dakota, requesting him to furnish
the party, through the officers in command at Forts Keogh, Maginnis, and
McKinney, such field transportation, escort, and camp equipage as might
be necessary, and also to sell to the party such commissary stores as
might be required, at cost price, plus 10 per cent. The Secretary of the
Interior also favored the party with an order, directing all Indian
agents, scouts, and others in the service of the Department to render
assistance as far as possible when called upon.

In view of the public interest attaching to the results of the
expedition, the railway transportation of the party to and from Montana
was furnished entirely without cost to the Smithsonian Institution. For
these valuable courtesies we gratefully acknowledge our obligations to
Mr. Frank Thomson, of the Pennsylvania Railroad; Mr. Roswell Miller, of
the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul; and Mr. Robert Harris, of the
Northern Pacific.

Under orders from the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the
writer left Washington on May 6, accompanied by A. H. Forney, assistant
in the department of taxidermy, and George H. Hedley, of Medina, New
York. It had been decided that Miles City, Montana, might properly be
taken as the first objective point, and that town was reached on May 9.

Diligent inquiry in Miles City and at Fort Keogh, 2 miles distant,
revealed the fact that no one knew of the presence of any wild buffalo
anywhere in the Northwest, save within the protected limits of the
Yellowstone Park. All inquiries elicited the same reply: "There are no
buffalo any more, and you can't get any anywhere." Many persons who were
considered good authority declared most positively that there was not a
live buffalo in the vicinity of Big Dry Creek, nor anywhere between the
Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. An army officer from Fort Maginnis
testified to the total absence of buffalo in the Judith Basin, and
ranchmen from Wyoming asserted that none remained in the Powder River
country.

Just at this time it was again reported to us, and most opportunely
confirmed by Mr. Henry E. Phillips, owner of the =LU=-bar ranch on
Little Dry Creek, that there still remained a chance to find a few
buffalo in the country lying south of the Big Dry. On the other hand,
other persons who seemed to be fully informed regarding that very region
and the animal life it contained, assured us that not a single buffalo
remained there, and that a search in that direction would prove
fruitless. But the balance of evidence, however, seemed to lie in favor
of the Big Dry country, and we resolved to hunt through it with all
possible dispatch.

On the afternoon of May 13 we crossed the Yellowstone and started
northwest up the trail which leads along Sunday Creek. Our entire party
consisted of the two assistants already mentioned, a non-commissioned
officer, Sergeant Garone, and four men from the Fifth Infantry acting as
escort; Private Jones, also from the Fifth Infantry, detailed to act as
our cook, and a teamster. Our conveyance consisted of a six-mule team,
which, like the escort, was ordered out for twenty days only, and
provided accordingly. Before leaving Miles City we purchased two
saddle-horses for use in hunting, the equipments for which were
furnished by the ordnance department at Fort Keogh.

During the first two days' travel through the bad lands north of the
Yellowstone no mammals were seen save prairie-dogs and rabbits. On the
third day a few antelope were seen, but none killed. It is to be borne
in mind that this entire region is absolutely treeless everywhere save
along the margins of the largest streams. Bushes are also entirely
absent, with the exception of sage-brush, and even that does not occur
to any extent on the divides.

On the third day two young buck antelopes were shot at the Red Buttes.
One had already commenced to shed his hair, but the other had not quite
reached that point. We prepared the skin of the first specimen and the
skeleton of the other. This was the only good antelope skin we obtained
in the spring, those of all the other specimens taken being quite
worthless on account of the looseness of the hair. During the latter
part of May, and from that time on until the long winter hair is
completely shed, it falls off in handfuls at the slightest pressure,
leaving the skin clad only with a thin growth of new, mouse-colored hair
an eighth of an inch long.

After reaching Little Dry Creek and hunting through the country on the
west side of it nearly to its confluence with the Big Dry we turned
southwest, and finally went into permanent camp on Phillips Creek, 8
miles above the =LU=-bar ranch and 4 miles from the Little Dry. At that
point we were about 80 miles from Miles City.

From information furnished us by Mr. Phillips and the cowboys in his
employ, we were assured that about thirty-five head of buffalo ranged in
the bad lands between Phillips Creek and the Musselshell River and south
of the Big Dry. This tract of country was about 40 miles long from east
to west by 25 miles wide, and therefore of about 1,000 square miles in
area. Excepting two temporary cowboy camps it was totally uninhabited by
man, treeless, without any running streams, save in winter and spring,
and was mostly very hilly and broken.

In this desolate and inhospitable country the thirty-five buffaloes
alluded to had been seen, first on Sand Creek, then at the head of the
Big Porcupine, again near the Musselshell, and latest near the head of
the Little Dry. As these points were all from 15 to 30 miles distant
from each other, the difficulty of finding such a small herd becomes
apparent.

Although Phillips Creek was really the eastern boundary of the buffalo
country, it was impossible for a six-mule wagon to proceed beyond it, at
least at that point. Having established a permanent camp, the Government
wagon and its escort returned to Fort Keogh, and we proceeded to hunt
through the country between Sand Creek and the Little Dry. The absence
of nearly all the cowboys on the spring round-up, which began May 20,
threatened to be a serious drawback to us, as we greatly needed the
services of a man who was acquainted with the country. We had with us as
a scout and guide a Cheyenne Indian, named Dog, but it soon became
apparent that he knew no more about the country than we did.
Fortunately, however, we succeeded in occasionally securing the services
of a cowboy, which was of great advantage to us.

It was our custom to ride over the country daily, each day making a
circuit through a new locality, and covering as much ground as it was
possible to ride over in a day. It was also our custom to take trips of
from two to four days in length, during which we carried our blankets
and rations upon our horses and camped wherever night overtook us,
provided water could be found.

Our first success consisted in the capture of a buffalo calf, which from
excessive running had become unable to keep up with its mother, and had
been left behind. The calf was caught alive without any difficulty, and
while two of the members of our party carried it to camp across a horse,
the other two made a vigorous effort to discover the band of adult
animals. The effort was unsuccessful, for, besides the calf, no other
buffaloes were seen.

Ten days after the above event two bull buffaloes were met with on the
Little Dry, 15 miles above the =LU=-bar ranch, one of which was
overtaken and killed, but the other got safely away. The shedding of the
winter coat was in full progress. On the head, neck, and shoulders the
old hair had been entirely replaced by the new, although the two coats
were so matted together that the old hair clung in tangled masses to the
other. The old hair was brown and weather-beaten, but the new, which was
from 3 to 6 inches long, had a peculiar bluish-gray appearance. On the
head the new hair was quite black, and contrasted oddly with the lighter
color. On the body and hind quarters there were large patches of skin
which were perfectly bare, between which lay large patches of old,
woolly, brown hair. This curious condition gave the animal a very
unkempt and "seedy" appearance, the effect of which was heightened by
the long, shaggy locks of old, weather beaten hair which clung to the
new coat of the neck and shoulders like tattered signals of distress,
ready to be blown away by the first gust of wind.

This specimen was a large one, measuring 5 feet 4 inches in height.
Inasmuch as the skin was not in condition to mount, we took only the
skeleton, entire, and the skin of the head and neck.

The capture of the calf and the death of this bull proved conclusively
that there were buffaloes in that region, and also that they were
breeding in comparative security. The extent of the country they had to
range over made it reasonably certain that their number would not be
diminished to any serious extent by the cowboys on the spring round-up,
although it was absolutely certain that in a few months the members of
that band would all be killed. The report of the existence of a herd of
thirty-five head was confirmed later by cowboys, who had actually seen
the animals, and killed two of them merely for sport, as usual. They
saved a few pounds of hump meat, and all the rest became food for the
wolves and foxes.

It was therefore resolved to leave the buffaloes entirely unmolested
until autumn, and then, when the robes would be in the finest condition,
return for a hunt on a liberal scale. Accordingly, it was decided to
return to Washington without delay, and a courier was dispatched with a
request for transportation to carry our party back to Fort Keogh.

While awaiting the arrival of the wagons, a cowboy in the employ of the
Phillips Land and Cattle Company killed a solitary bull buffalo about 15
miles west of our camp, near Sand Creek. This animal had completely shed
the hair on his body and hind quarters. In addition to the preservation
of his entire skeleton, we prepared the skin also, as an example of the
condition of the buffalo immediately after shedding.

On June 6 the teams from Fort Keogh arrived, and we immediately returned
to Miles City, taking with us our live buffalo calf, two fresh buffalo
skeletons, three bleached skeletons, seven skulls, one skin entire, and
one head skin, in addition to a miscellaneous collection of skins and
skeletons of smaller mammals and birds. On reaching Miles City we
hastily packed and shipped our collection, and, taking the calf with us,
returned at once to Washington.




II. THE HUNT.


On September 24 I arrived at Miles City a second time, fully equipped
for a protracted hunt for buffalo; this time accompanied only by W.
Harvey Brown, a student of the University of Kansas, as field assistant,
having previously engaged three cowboys as guides and hunters--Irwin
Boyd, James McNaney, and L. S. Russell. Messrs. Boyd and Russell were in
Miles City awaiting my arrival, and Mr. McNaney joined us in the field a
few days later. Mr. Boyd acted as my foreman during the entire hunt, a
position which he filled to my entire satisfaction.

Thanks to the energy and good-will of the officers at Fort Keogh, of
which Lieutenant-Colonel Cochran was then in command, our
transportation, camp equipage, and stores were furnished without an
hour's delay. We purchased two months' supplies of commissary stores, a
team, and two saddle-horses, and hired three more horses, a light wagon,
and a set of double harness. Each of the cowboys furnished one horse; so
that in our outfit we had ten head, a team, and two good saddle-horses
for each hunter. The worst feature of the whole question of subsistence
was the absolute necessity of hauling a supply of grain from Miles City
into the heart of the buffalo country for our ten horses. For such work
as they had to encounter it was necessary to feed them constantly and
liberally with oats in order to keep them in condition to do their work.
We took with us 2,000 pounds of oats, and by the beginning of November
as much more had to be hauled up to us.

Thirty six hours after our arrival in Miles City our outfit was
complete, and we crossed the Yellowstone and started up the Sunday Creek
trail. We had from Fort Keogh a six-mule team, an escort of four men, in
charge of Sergeant Bayliss, and an old veteran of more than twenty
years' service, from the Fifth Infantry, Private Patrick McCanna, who
was detailed to act as cook and camp-guard for our party during our stay
in the field.

On September 29 we reached Tow's ranch, the =HV=, on Big Dry Creek
(erroneously called Big Timber Creek on most maps of Montana), at the
mouth of Sand Creek, which here flows into it from the southwest. This
point is said to be 90 miles from Miles City. Here we received our
freight from the six-mule wagon, loaded it with bleached skeletons and
skulls of buffalo, and started it back to the post. One member of the
escort, Private C. S. West, who was then on two months' furlough,
elected to join our party for the hunt, and accordingly remained with us
to its close. Leaving half of our freight stored at the =HV= ranch, we
loaded the remainder upon our own wagon, and started up Sand Creek.

[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF THE HUNT FOR BUFFALO. MONTANA 1886.]

At this point the hunt began. As the wagon and extra horses proceeded up
the Sand Creek trail in the care of W. Harvey Brown, the three cowboys
and I paired off, and while two hunted through the country along the
south side of the creek, the others took the north. The whole of the
country bordering Sand Creek, quite up to its source, consists of rugged
hills and ridges, which sometimes rise to considerable height, cut
between by great yawning ravines and hollows, such as persecuted game
loves to seek shelter in. Inasmuch as the buffalo we were in search of
had been seen hiding in those ravines, it became necessary to search
through them with systematic thoroughness; a proceeding which was very
wearing upon our horses. Along the south side of Sand Creek, near its
source, the divide between it and Little Dry Creek culminates in a chain
of high, flat-topped buttes, whose summits bear a scanty growth of
stunted pines, which serve to make them conspicuous landmarks. On some
maps these insignificant little buttes are shown as mountains, under the
name of "Piny Buttes."

It was our intention to go to the head of Sand Creek, and beyond, in
case buffaloes were not found earlier. Immediately westward of its
source there is a lofty level plateau, about 3 miles square, which, by
common consent, we called the High Divide. It is the highest ground
anywhere between the Big Dry and the Yellowstone, and is the starting
point of streams that run northward into the Missouri and Big Dry,
eastward into Sand Creek and the Little Dry, southward into Porcupine
Creek and the Yellowstone, and westward into the Musselshell. On three
sides--north, east, and south--it is surrounded by wild and rugged butte
country, and its sides are scored by intricate systems of great yawning
ravines and hollows, steep-sided and very deep, and bad lands of the
worst description.

By the 12th of October the hunt had progressed up Sand Creek to its
source, and westward across the High Divide to Calf Creek, where we
found a hole of wretchedly bad water and went into permanent camp. We
considered that the spot we selected would serve us as a key to the
promising country that lay on three sides of it, and our surmise that
the buffalo were in the habit of hiding in the heads of those great
ravines around the High Divide soon proved to be correct. Our camp at
the head of Calf Creek was about 20 miles east of the Musselshell River,
40 miles south of the Missouri, and about 135 miles from Miles City, as
the trail ran. Four miles north of us, also on Calf Creek, was the line
camp of the =STV= ranch, owned by Messrs. J. H. Conrad & Co., and 18
miles east, near the head of Sand Creek, was the line camp of the
=N=-bar ranch, owned by Mr. Newman. At each of these camps there were
generally from two to four cowboys. From all these gentlemen we received
the utmost courtesy and hospitality on all occasions, and all the
information in regard to buffalo which it was in their power to give. On
many occasions they rendered us valuable assistance, which is hereby
gratefully acknowledged.

We saw no buffalo, nor any signs of any, until October 13. On that day,
while L. S. Russell was escorting our second load of freight across the
High Divide, he discovered a band of seven buffaloes lying in the head
of a deep ravine. He fired upon them, but killed none, and when they
dashed away he gave chase and followed them 2 or 3 miles. Being mounted
on a tired horse, which was unequal to the demands of the chase, he was
finally distanced by the herd, which took a straight course and ran due
south. As it was then nearly night, nothing further could be done that
day except to prepare for a vigorous chase on the morrow. Everything was
got in perfect readiness for an early start, and by daybreak the
following morning the three cowboys and the writer were mounted on our
best horses, and on our way through the bad lands to take up the trail
of the seven buffaloes.

Shortly after sunrise we found the trail, not far from the head of Calf
Creek, and followed it due south. We left the rugged butte region behind
us, and entered a tract of country quite unlike anything we had found
before. It was composed of a succession of rolling hills and deep
hollows, smooth enough on the surface, to all appearances, but like a
desert of sand-hills to traverse. The dry soil was loose and crumbly,
like loose ashes or scoriæ, and the hoofs of our horses sank into it
half-way to the fetlocks at every step. But there was another feature
which was still worse. The whole surface of the ground was cracked and
seamed with a perfect net-work of great cracks, into which our horses
stepped every yard or so, and sank down still farther, with many a
tiresome wrench of the joints. It was terrible ground to go over. To
make it as bad as possible, a thick growth of sage-brush or else
grease-wood was everywhere present for the horses to struggle through,
and when it came to dragging a loaded wagon across that 12-mile stretch
of "bad grounds" or "gumbo ground," as it was called, it was killing
work.

But in spite of the character of this ground, in one way it was a
benefit to us. Owing to its looseness on the surface we were able to
track the buffaloes through it with the greatest ease, whereas on any
other ground in that country it would have been almost impossible. We
followed the trail due south for about 20 miles, which brought us to the
head of a small stream called Taylor Creek. Here the bad grounds ended,
and in the grassy country which lay beyond, tracking was almost
impossible. Just at noon we rode to a high point, and on scanning the
hills and hollows with the binocular discovered the buffaloes lying at
rest on the level top of a small butte 2 miles away. The original bunch
of seven had been joined by an equal number.

We crept up to within 200 yards of the buffaloes, which was as close as
we could go, fired a volley at them just as they lay, and did not even
kill a calf! Instantly they sprang up and dashed away at astonishing
speed, heading straight for the sheltering ravines around the High
Divide.

We had a most exciting and likewise dangerous chase after the herd
through a vast prairie-dog town, honey-combed with holes just right for
a running horse to thrust a leg in up to the knee and snap it off like a
pipe-stem, and across fearfully wide gullies that either had to be
leaped or fallen into. McNaney killed a fine old bull and a beautiful
two year old, or "spike" bull, out of this herd, while I managed to kill
a cow and another large old bull, making four for that day, all told.
This herd of fourteen head was the largest that we saw during the entire
hunt.

Two days later, when we were on the spot with the wagon to skin our game
and haul in the hides, four more buffaloes were discovered within 2
miles of us, and while I worked on one of the large bull skins to save
it from spoiling, the cowboys went after the buffalo, and by a really
brilliant exploit killed them all. The first one to fall was an old cow,
which was killed at the beginning of the chase, the next was an old
bull, who was brought down about 5 miles from the scene of the first
attack, then 2 miles farther on a yearling calf was killed. The fourth
buffalo, an immense old bull, was chased fully 12 miles before he was
finally brought down.

The largest bull fell about 8 miles from our temporary camp, in the
opposite direction from that in which our permanent camp lay, and at
about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. There not being time enough in which
to skin him completely and reach our rendezvous before dark, Messrs.
McNaney and Boyd dressed the carcass to preserve the meat, partly
skinned the legs, and came to camp.

As early as possible the next morning we drove to the carcass with the
wagon, to prepare both skin and skeleton and haul them in. When we
reached it we found that during the night a gang of Indians had robbed
us of our hard-earned spoil. They had stolen the skin and all the
eatable meat, broken up the leg-bones to get at the marrow, and even cut
out the tongue. And to injury the skulking thieves had added insult.
Through laziness they had left the head unskinned, but on one side of it
they had smeared the hair with red war-paint, the other side they had
daubed with yellow, and around the base of one horn they had tied a
strip of red flannel as a signal of defiance. Of course they had left
for parts unknown, and we never saw any signs of them afterward. The
gang visited the =LU=-bar ranch a few days later, so we learned
subsequently. It was then composed of eleven braves(!), who claimed to
be Assinniboines, and were therefore believed to be Piegans, the most
notorious horse and cattle thieves in the Northwest.

On October 22d Mr. Russell ran down in a fair chase a fine bull buffalo,
and killed him in the rough country bordering the High Divide on the
south. This was the ninth specimen. On the 26th we made an other trip
with the wagon to the Buffalo Buttes, as, for the sake of convenience,
we had named the group of buttes near which eight head had already been
taken. While Mr. Brown and I were getting the wagon across the bad
grounds, Messrs. McNaney and Boyd discovered a solitary bull buffalo
feeding in a ravine within a quarter of a mile of our intended camping
place, and the former stalked him and killed him at long range. The
buffalo had all been attracted to that locality by some springs which
lay between two groups of hills, and which was the only water within a
radius of about 15 miles. In addition to water, the grass around the
Buffalo Buttes was most excellent.

During all this time we shot antelope and coyotes whenever an
opportunity offered, and preserved the skins and skeletons of the finest
until we had obtained a very fine series of both. At this season the
pelts of these animals were in the finest possible condition, the hair
having attained its maximum length and density, and, being quite new,
had lost none of its brightness of color, either by wear or the action
of the weather. Along Sand Creek and all around the High Divide antelope
were moderately plentiful (but really scarce in comparison with their
former abundance), so much so that had we been inclined to slaughter we
could have killed a hundred head or more, instead of the twenty that we
shot as specimens and for their flesh. We have it to say that from first
to last not an antelope was killed which was not made use of to the
fullest extent.

On the 31st of October, Mr. Boyd and I discovered a buffalo cow and
yearling calf in the ravines north of the High Divide, within 3 miles of
our camp, and killed them both. The next day Private West arrived with a
six mule team from Fort Keogh, in charge of Corporal Clafer and three
men. This wagon brought us another 2,000 pounds of oats and various
commissary stores. When it started back, on November 3, we sent by it
all the skins and skeletons of buffalo, antelope, etc., which we had
collected up to that date, which made a heavy load for the six mules. On
this same day Mr. McNaney killed two young cow buffaloes in the bad
lands south of the High Divide, which brought our total number up to
fourteen.

On the night of the 3d the weather turned very cold, and on the day
following we experienced our first snow-storm. By that time the water in
the hole, which up to that time had supplied our camp, became so thick
with mud and filth that it was unendurable; and having discovered a fine
pool of pure water in the bottom of a little cañon on the southern slope
of the High Divide we moved to it forthwith. It was really the upper
spring of the main fork of the Big Porcupine, and a finer situation for
a camp does not exist in that whole region. The spot which nature made
for us was sheltered on all sides by the high walls of the cañon, within
easy reach of an inexhaustible supply of good water, and also within
reach of a fair supply of dry fire-wood, which we found half a mile
below. This became our last permanent camp, and its advantages made up
for the barrenness and discomfort of our camp on Calf Creek. Immediately
south of us, and 2 miles distant there rose a lofty conical butte about
600 feet high, which forms a very conspicuous landmark from the south.
We were told that it was visible from 40 miles down the Porcupine.
Strange to say, this valuable landmark was without a name, so far as we
could learn; so, for our own convenience, we christened it Smithsonian
Butte.

The two buffalo cows that Mr. McNaney killed just before we moved our
camp seemed to be the last in the country, for during the following week
we scouted for 15 miles in three directions, north, east, and south,
without finding as much as a hoof-print. At last we decided to go away
and give that country absolute quiet for a week, in the hope that some
more buffalo would come into it. Leaving McCanna and West to take care
of the camp, we loaded a small assortment of general equipage into the
wagon and pulled about 25 miles due west to the Musselshell River.

We found a fine stream of clear water, flowing over sand and pebbles,
with heavy cottonwood timber and thick copses of willow along its banks,
which afforded cover for white-tailed deer. In the rugged brakes, which
led from the level river bottom into a labyrinth of ravines and gullies,
ridges and hog-backs, up to the level of the high plateau above, we
found a scanty growth of stunted cedars and pines, which once sheltered
great numbers of mule deer, elk, and bear. Now, however, few remain, and
these are very hard to find. Even when found, the deer are nearly always
young. Although we killed five mule deer and five white-tails, we did
not kill even one fine buck, and the only one we saw on the whole trip
was a long distance off. We saw fresh tracks of elk, and also grizzly
bear, but our most vigorous efforts to discover the animals themselves
always ended in disappointment. The many bleaching skulls and antlers of
elk and deer, which we found everywhere we went, afforded proof of what
that country had been as a home for wild animals only a few years ago.
We were not a little surprised at finding the fleshless carcasses of
three head of cattle that had been killed and eaten by bears within a
few months.

In addition to ten deer, we shot three wild geese, seven sharp-tailed
grouse, eleven sage grouse, nine Bohemian waxwings, and a magpie, for
their skeletons. We made one trip of several miles up the Musselshell,
and another due west, almost to the Bull Mountains, but no signs of
buffalo were found. The weather at this time was quite cold, the
thermometer registering 6 degrees below zero; but, in spite of the fact
that we were without shelter and had to bivouac in the open, we were,
generally speaking, quite comfortable.

Having found no buffalo by the 17th, we felt convinced that we ought to
return to our permanent camp, and did so on that day. Having brought
back nearly half a wagon-load of specimens in the flesh or half skinned,
it was absolutely necessary that I should remain at camp all the next
day. While I did so, Messrs. McNaney and Boyd rode over to the Buffalo
Buttes, found four fine old buffalo cows, and, after a hard chase,
killed them all.

Under the circumstances, this was the most brilliant piece of work of
the entire hunt. As the four cows dashed past the hunters at the Buffalo
Buttes, heading for the High Divide, fully 20 miles distant, McNaney
killed one cow, and two others went off wounded. Of course the cowboys
gave chase. About 12 miles from the starting-point one of the wounded
cows left her companions, was headed off by Boyd, and killed. About 6
miles beyond that one, McNaney overhauled the third cow and killed her,
but the fourth one got away for a short time. While McNaney skinned the
third cow and dressed the carcass to preserve the meat, Boyd took their
now thoroughly exhausted horses to camp and procured fresh mounts. On
returning to McNaney they set out in pursuit of the fourth cow, chased
her across the High Divide, within a mile or so of our camp, and into
the ravines on the northern slope, where she was killed. She met her
death nearly if not quite 25 miles from the spot where the first one
fell.

The death of these four cows brought our number of buffaloes up to
eighteen, and made us think about the possibilities of getting thirty.
As we were proceeding to the Buffalo Buttes on the day after the "kill"
to gather in the spoil, Mr. Brown and I taking charge of the wagon,
Messrs. McNaney and Boyd went ahead in order to hunt. When within about
5 miles of the Buttes we came unexpectedly upon our companions, down in
a hollow, busily engaged in skinning another old cow, which they had
discovered traveling across the bad grounds, waylaid, and killed.

We camped that night on our old ground at the Buffalo Buttes, and
although we all desired to remain a day or two and hunt for more
buffalo, the peculiar appearance of the sky in the northwest, and the
condition of the atmosphere, warned us that a change of weather was
imminent. Accordingly, the following morning we decided without
hesitation that it was best to get back to camp that day, and it soon
proved very fortunate for us that we so decided.

Feeling that by reason of my work on the specimens I had been deprived
of a fair share of the chase, I arranged for Mr. Boyd to accompany the
wagon on the return trip, that I might hunt through the bad lands west
of the Buffalo Buttes, which I felt must contain some buffalo. Mr.
Russell went northeast and Mr. McNaney accompanied me. About 4 miles
from our late camp we came suddenly upon a fine old solitary bull,
feeding in a hollow between two high and precipitous ridges. After a
short but sharp chase I succeeded in getting a fair shot at him, and
killed him with a ball which broke his left humerus and passed into his
lungs. He was the only large bull killed on the entire trip by a single
shot. He proved to be a very fine specimen, measuring 5 feet 6 inches in
height at the shoulders. The wagon was overtaken and called back to get
the skin, and while it was coming I took a complete series of
measurements and sketches of him as he lay.

Although we removed the skin very quickly, and lost no time in again
starting the wagon to our permanent camp, the delay occasioned by the
death of our twentieth buffalo,--which occurred on November 20,
precisely two months from the date of our leaving Washington to collect
twenty buffalo, it possible,--caused us all to be caught in a
snow-storm, which burst upon us from the northwest. The wagon had to be
abandoned about 12 miles from camp in the bad lands. Mr. Brown packed
the bedding on one of the horses and rode the other, he and Boyd
reaching camp about 9 o'clock that night in a blinding snow-storm. Of
coarse the skins in the wagon were treated with preservatives and
covered up. It proved to be over a week that the wagon and its load had
to remain thus abandoned before it was possible to get to it and bring
it to camp, and even then the task was one of great difficulty. In this
connection I can not refrain from recording the fact that the services
rendered by Mr. W. Harvey Brown on all such trying occasions as the
above were invaluable. He displayed the utmost zeal and intelligence,
not only in the more agreeable kinds of work and sport incident to the
hunt, but also in the disagreeable drudgery, such as team-driving and
working on half-frozen specimens in bitter cold weather.

The storm which set in on the 20th soon developed into a regular
blizzard. A fierce and bitter cold wind swept down from the northwest,
driving the snow before it in blinding gusts. Had our camp been poorly
sheltered we would have suffered, but at it was we were fairly
comfortable.

Having thus completed our task (of getting twenty buffaloes), we were
anxious to get out of that fearful country before we should get caught
in serious difficulties with the weather, and it was arranged that
Private C. S. West should ride to Fort Keogh as soon as possible, with a
request for transportation. By the third day, November 23, the storm had
abated sufficiently that Private West declared his willingness to start.
It was a little risky, but as he was to make only 10 miles the first day
and stop at the =N=-bar camp on Sand Creek, it was thought safe to let
him go. He dressed himself warmly, took my revolver, in order not to be
hampered with a rifle, and set out.

The next day was clear and fine, and we remarked it as an assurance of
Mr. West's safety during his ride from Sand Creek to the =LU=-bar ranch,
his second stopping-place. The distance was about 25 miles, through bad
lands all the way, and it was the only portion of the route which caused
me anxiety for our courier's safety. The snow on the levels was less
than 6 inches deep, the most of it having been blown into drifts and
hollows; but although the coulées were all filled level to the top, our
courier was a man of experience and would know how to avoid them.

The 25th day of November was the most severe day of the storm, the
mercury in our sheltered cañon sinking to -16 degrees. We had hoped to
kill at least five more buffaloes by the time Private West should arrive
with the wagons; but when at the end of a week the storm had spent
itself, the snow was so deep that hunting was totally impossible save in
the vicinity of camp, where there was nothing to kill. We expected the
wagons by the 3d of December, but they did not come that day nor within
the next three. By the 6th the snow had melted off sufficiently that a
buffalo hunt was once more possible, and Mr. McNaney and I decided to
make a final trip to the Buffalo Buttes. The state of the ground made it
impossible for us to go there and return the same day, so we took a
pack-horse and arranged to camp out.

When a little over half-way to our old rendezvous we came upon three
buffaloes in the bad grounds, one of which was an enormous old bull, the
next largest was an adult cow, and the third a two-year-old heifer. Mr.
McNaney promptly knocked down the old cow, while I devoted my attention
to the bull; but she presently got up and made off unnoticed at the
precise moment Mr. McNaney was absorbed in watching my efforts to bring
down the old bull. After a short chase my horse carried me alongside my
buffalo, and as he turned toward me I gave him a shot through the
shoulder, breaking the fore leg and bringing him promptly to the ground.
I then turned immediately to pursue the young cow, but by that time she
had got on the farther side of a deep gully which was filled with snow,
and by the time I got my horse safely across she had distanced me. I
then rode back to the old bull. When he saw me coming he got upon his
feet and ran a short distance, but was easily overtaken. He then stood
at bay, and halting within 30 yards of him I enjoyed the rare
opportunity of studying a live bull buffalo of the largest size on foot
on his native heath. I even made an outline sketch of him in my
note-book. Having studied his form and outlines as much as was really
necessary, I gave him a final shot through the lungs, which soon ended
his career.

This was a truly magnificent specimen in every respect. He was a
"stub-horn" bull, about eleven years old, much larger every way than any
of the others we collected. His height at the shoulder was 5 feet 8
inches perpendicular, or 2 inches more than the next largest of our
collection. His hair was in remarkably fine condition, being long, fine,
thick, and well colored. The hair in his frontlet is 16 inches in
length, and the thick coat of shaggy, straw-colored tufts which covered
his neck and shoulders measured 4 inches. His girth behind the fore leg
was 8 feet 4 inches, and his weight was estimated at 1,600 pounds.

[Illustration: TROPHIES OF THE HUNT. Mounted by the author in the U. S.
National Museum. Reproduced from the _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, by
permission of the publishers.]

I was delighted with our remarkably good fortune in securing such a
prize, for, owing to the rapidity with which the large buffaloes are
being found and killed off these days, I had not hoped to capture a
really old individual. Nearly every adult bull we took carried old
bullets in his body, and from this one we took four of various sizes
that had been fired into him on various occasions. One was found
sticking fast in one of the lumbar vertebræ.[79]

[Note 79: This specimen is now the commanding figure of the group of
buffalo which has recently been placed on exhibition in the Museum.]

After a chase of several miles Mr. McNaney finally overhauled his cow
and killed her, which brought the number of buffaloes taken on the fall
hunt up to twenty-two. We spent the night at the Buffalo Buttes and
returned to camp the next day. Neither on that day nor the one following
did the wagons arrive, and on the evening of the 8th we learned from the
cowboys of the =N=-bar camp on Sand Creek that our courier, Private West,
had not been seen or heard from since he left their camp on November 24,
and evidently had got lost and frozen to death in the bad lands.

The next day we started out to search for Private West, or news of him,
and spent the night with Messrs. Brodhurst and Andrews, at their camp on
Sand Creek. On the 10th, Mr. McNaney and I hunted through the bad lands
over the course our courier should have taken, while Messrs. Russell and
Brodhurst looked through the country around the head of the Little Dry.
When McNaney and I reached the =LU=-bar ranch that night we were greatly
rejoiced at finding that West was alive, although badly frost-bitten,
and in Fort Keogh.

It appears that instead of riding due east to the =LU=-bar ranch, he
lost his way in the bad lands, where the buttes all look alike when
covered with snow, and rode southwest. It is at all times an easy matter
for even a cowboy to get lost in Montana if the country is new to him,
and when there is snow on the ground the difficulty of finding one's way
is increased tenfold. There is not only the danger of losing one's way,
but the still greater danger of getting ingulfed in a deep coulée full
of loose snow, which may easily cause both horse and rider to perish
miserably. Even the most experienced riders sometimes ride into coulées
which are level full of snow and hidden from sight.

Private West's experience was a terrible one, and also a wonderful case
of self-preservation. It shows what a man with a cool head and plenty of
grit can go through and live. When he left us he wore two undershirts, a
heavy blanket shirt, a soldier's blouse and overcoat, two pairs of
drawers, a pair of soldier's woolen trousers, and a pair of overalls. On
his feet he wore three pairs of socks, a pair of _low shoes_ with canvas
leggins, and he started with his feet tied up in burlaps. His head and
hands were also well protected. He carried a 38-caliber revolver, but,
by a great oversight, only six matches. When he left the =N=-bar camp,
instead of going due east toward the =LU=-bar ranch, he swung around and
went southwest, clear around the head of the Little Dry, and finally
struck the Porcupine south of our camp. The first night out he made a
fire with sage-brush, and kept it going all night. The second night he
also had a fire, but it took his last match to make it. During the first
three days he had no food, but on the fourth he shot a sage-cock with
his revolver, and ate it raw. This effort, however, cost him his last
cartridge. Through hard work and lack of food his pony presently gave
out, and necessitated long and frequent stops for rest. West's feet
threatened to freeze, and he cut off the skirts of his overcoat to wrap
them with, in place of the gunny sacking, that had been worn to rags.
Being afraid to go to sleep at night, he slept by snatches in the
warmest part of the day, while resting his horse.

On the 5th day he began to despair of succor, although he still toiled
southward through the bad lands toward the Yellowstone, where people
lived. On the envelopes which contained my letters he kept a diary of
his wanderings, which could tell his story when the cowboys would find
his body on the spring round-up.

On the afternoon of the sixth day he found a trail and followed it until
nearly night, when he came to Cree's sheep ranch, and found the solitary
ranchman at home. The warm-hearted frontiersman gave the starving
wanderers, man and horse, such a welcome as they stood in need of. West
solemnly declares that in twenty-four hours he ate a whole sheep. After
two or three days of rest and feeding both horse and rider were able to
go on, and in course of time reached Fort Keogh.

Without the loss of a single day Colonel Gibson started three teams and
an escort up to us, and notwithstanding his terrible experience, West
had the pluck to accompany them as guide. His arrival among us once more
was like the dead coming to life again. The train reached our camp on
the 13th, and on the 15th we pulled out for Miles City, loaded to the
wagon-bows with specimens, forage, and camp plunder.

From our camp down to the =HV= ranch, at the mouth of Sand Creek, the
trail was in a terrible condition. But, thanks to the skill and judgment
of the train-master, Mr. Ed. Haskins, and his two drivers, who also knew
their business well, we got safely and in good time over the dangerous
part of our road. Whenever our own tired and overloaded team got stuck
in the mud, or gave out, there was always a pair of mules ready to hitch
on and help us out. As a train-master, Mr. Haskins was a perfect model,
skillful, pushing, good-tempered, and very obliging.

From the =HV= ranch to Miles City the trail was in fine condition, and
we went in as rapidly as possible, fearing to be caught in the
snow-storm which threatened us all the way in. We reached Miles City on
December 20, with our collection complete and in fine condition, and the
next day a snow-storm set in which lasted until the 25th, and resulted
in over a foot of snow. The ice running in the Yellowstone stopped all
the ferry-boats, and it was with good reason that we congratulated
ourselves on the successful termination of our hunt at that particular
time. Without loss of time Mr. Brown and I packed our collection, which
tilled twenty-one large cases, turned in our equipage at Fort Keogh,
sold our horses, and started on our homeward journey. In due course of
time the collection reached the Museum in good condition, and a series
of the best specimens it contains has already been mounted.

At this point it is proper to acknowledge our great indebtedness to the
Secretary of War for the timely co-operation of the War Department,
which rendered the expedition possible. Our thanks are due to the
officers who were successively in command at Fort Keogh during our work,
Col. John D. Wilkins, Col. George M. Gibson, and Lieut. Col. M. A.
Cochran, and their various staff officers; particularly Lieut. C. B.
Thompson, quartermaster, and Lieut. H. K. Bailey, adjutant. It is due
these officers to state that everything we asked for was cheerfully
granted with a degree of promptness which contributed very greatly to
the success of the hunt, and lightened its labors very materially.

I have already acknowledged our indebtedness to the officers of the
Pennsylvania; the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul; and Northern Pacific
railways for the courtesies so liberally extended in our emergency. I
take pleasure in adding that all the officers and employés of the
Northern Pacific Railway with whom we had any relations, particularly
Mr. C. S. Fee, general passenger and ticket agent, treated our party
with the utmost kindness and liberality throughout the trip. We are in
like manner indebted to the officers of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St.
Paul Railway for valuable privileges granted with the utmost cordiality.

Our thanks are also due to Dr. J. C. Merrill, and to Mr. Henry R.
Phillips, of the Phillips Land and Cattle Company, on Little Dry Creek,
for valuable information at a critical moment, and to the latter for
hospitality and assistance in various ways, at times when both were
keenly appreciated.

Counting the specimens taken in the spring, our total catch of buffalo
amounted to twenty-five head, and constituted as complete and fine a
series as could be wished for. I am inclined to believe that in size and
general quality of pelage the adult bull and cow selected and mounted
for our Museum group are not to be surpassed, even if they are ever
equaled, by others of their kind.

The different ages and sexes were thus represented in our collection: 10
old bulls, 1 young bull, 7 old cows, 4 young cows, 2 yearling calves, 1
three-months calf[80]; total, 25 specimens.

[Note 80: Caught alive, but died in captivity July 26, 1886, and now in
the mounted group.]

Our total collection of specimens of _Bison americanus_, including
everything taken, contained the following: 24 fresh skins, 1 head skin,
8 fresh skeletons, 8 dry skeletons, 51 dry skulls, 2 foetal young;
total, 94 specimens.

Our collection as a whole also included a fine series of skins and
skeletons of antelope, deer of two species, coyotes, jack rabbits, sage
grouse (of which we prepared twenty-four rough skeletons for the
Department of Comparative Anatomy), sharp tailed grouse, and specimens
of all the other species of birds and small mammals to be found in that
region at that season. From this _matériel_ we now have on exhibition
besides the group of buffaloes, a family group of antelope, another of
coyotes, and another of prairie dogs, all with natural surroundings.




III. THE MOUNTED GROUP IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.


The result of the Smithsonian expedition for bison which appeals most
strongly to the general public is the huge group of six choice specimens
of both sexes and all ages, mounted with natural surroundings, and
displayed in a superb mahogany case. The dimensions of the group are as
follows: Length, 16 feet; width, 12 feet, and height, 10 feet. The
subjoined illustration is a very fair representation of the principal
one of its four sides, and the following admirable description (by Mr.
Harry P. Godwin), from the Washington _Star_ of March 10, 1888, is both
graphic and accurate:

A SCENE FROM MONTANA--SIX OF MR. HORNADAY'S BUFFALOES FORM A PICTURESQUE
GROUP--A BIT OF THE WILD WEST REPRODUCED AT THE NATIONAL
MUSEUM--SOMETHING NOVEL IN THE WAY OF TAXIDERMY--REAL BUFFALO-GRASS,
REAL MONTANA DIRT, AND REAL BUFFALOES.

A little bit of Montana--a small square patch from the wildest part of
the wild West--has been transferred to the National Museum. It is so
little that Montana will never miss it, but enough to enable one who has
the faintest glimmer of imagination to see it all for himself--the
hummocky prairie, the buffalo-grass, the sage-brush, and the buffalo. It
is as though a little group of buffalo that have come to drink at a pool
had been suddenly struck motionless by some magic spell, each in a
natural attitude, and then the section of prairie, pool, buffalo, and
all had been carefully cut out and brought to the National Museum. All
this is in a huge glass case, the largest ever made for the Museum. This
case and the space about it, at the south end of the south hall, has
been inclosed by high screens for many days while the taxidermist and
his assistants have been at work. The finishing touches were put on
to-day, and the screens will be removed Monday, exposing to view what is
regarded as a triumph of the taxidermist's art. The group, with its
accessories, has been prepared so as to tell in an attractive way to the
general visitor to the Museum the story of the buffalo, but care has
been taken at the same time to secure an accuracy of detail that will
satisfy the critical scrutiny of the most technical naturalist.

THE ACCESSORIES.

The pool of water is a typical alkaline water-hole, such as are found on
the great northern range of bison, and are resorted to for water by wild
animals in the fall when the small streams are dry. The pool is in a
depression in the dry bed of a coulée or small creek. A little mound
that rises beside the creek has been partially washed away by the water,
leaving a crumbling bank, which shows the strata of the earth, a very
thin layer of vegetable soil, beneath a stratum of grayish earth, and a
layer of gravel, from which protrude a fossil bone or two. The whole
bank shows the marks of erosion by water. Near by the pool a small
section of the bank has fallen. A buffalo trail passes by the pool in
front. This is a narrow path, well beaten down, depressed, and bare of
grass. Such paths were made by herds of bison all over their pasture
region as they traveled down water-courses, in single file, searching
for water. In the grass some distance from the pool lie the bleaching
skulls of two buffalo who have fallen victims to hunters who have
cruelly lain in wait to get a shot at the animals as they come to
drink. Such relics, strewn all over the plain, tell the story of the
extermination of the American bison. About the pool and the sloping
mound grow the low buffalo-grass, tufts of tall bunch-grass and
sage-brush, and a species of prickly pear. The pool is clear and
tranquil. About its edges is a white deposit of alkali. These are the
scenic accessories of the buffalo group, but they have an interest
almost equal to that of the buffaloes themselves, for they form really
and literally a genuine bit of the West. The homesick Montana cowboy,
far from his wild haunts, can here gaze upon his native sod again; for
the sod, the earth that forms the face of the bank, the sage-brush, and
all were brought from Montana--all except the pool. The pool is a glassy
delusion, and very perfect in its way. One sees a plant growing beneath
the water, and in the soft, oozy bottom, near the edge, are the deep
prints made by the fore feet of a big buffalo bull. About the soft,
moist earth around the pool, and in the buffalo trail are the
foot-tracks of the buffalo that have tramped around the pool, some of
those nearest the edge having filled with water.


THE SIX BUFFALOES.

The group comprises six buffaloes. In front of the pool, as if just
going to drink, is the huge buffalo bull, the giant of his race, the
last one that was secured by the Smithsonian party in 1888, and the one
that is believed to be the largest specimen of which there is authentic
record. Near by is a cow eight years old, a creature that would be
considered of great dimensions in any other company than that of the big
bull. Near the cow is a suckling calf, four months old. Upon the top of
the mound is a "spike" bull, two and a half years old; descending the
mound away from the pool is a young cow three years old, on one side,
and on the other a male calf a year and a half old. All the members of
the group are disposed in natural attitudes. The young cow is snuffing
at a bunch of tall grass; the old bull and cow are turning their heads
in the same direction apparently, as if alarmed by something
approaching; the others, having slaked their thirst, appear to be moving
contentedly away. The four months' old calf was captured alive and
brought to this city. It lived for some days in the Smithsonian grounds,
but pined for its prairie home, and finally died. It is around the great
bull that the romance and main interest of the group centers.

       *       *       *       *       *

It seemed as if Providence had ordained that this splendid animal,
perfect in limb, noble in size, should be saved to serve as a monument
to the greatness of his race, that once roamed the prairies in myriads.
Bullets found in his body showed that he had been chased and hunted
before, but fate preserved him for the immortality of a Museum exhibit.
His vertical height at the shoulders is 5 feet 8 inches. The thick hair
adds enough to his height to make it full 6 feet. The length of his head
and body is 9 feet 2 inches, his girth 8 feet 4 inches and his weight
is, or was, about 1,600 pounds.


THE TAXIDERMIST'S OBJECT LESSONS.

This group, with its accessories, is, in point of size, about the
biggest thing ever attempted by a taxidermist. It was mounted by Mr.
Hornaday, assisted by Messrs. J. Palmer and A. H. Forney. It represents
a new departure in mounting specimens for museums. Generally such
specimens have been mounted singly, upon a flat surface. The American
mammals, collected by Mr. Hornaday, will be mounted in a manner that
will make each piece or group an object lesson, telling something of the
history and the habits of the animal. The first group produced as one of
the results of the Montana hunt comprised three coyotes. Two of them are
struggling, and one might almost say snarling, over a bone. They do not
stand on a painted board, but on a little patch of soil. Two other
groups designed by Mr. Hornaday, and executed by Mr. William Palmer, are
about to be placed in the Museum. One of these represents a family of
prairie-dogs. They are disposed about a prairie-dog mound. One sits on
its haunches eating; others are running about. Across the mouth of the
burrow, just ready to disappear into it, is another one, startled for
the moment by the sudden appearance of a little burrowing owl that has
alighted on one side of the burrow. The owl and the dog are good friends
and live together in the same burrow, but there appears to be strained
relations between the two for the moment.

MAP ILLUSTRATING THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON.
Prepared by W. T. Hornaday.




INDEX.

A.

Abundance of the American bison, 387-393.
Accidents to bison herds, 420.
Affection, instinct of, in the bison, 433.
_Agropyrum_, 429.
Alabama, 380.
Albinism in the bison, 411.
Allard, Mr. Charles, 461.
Allen, Mr. J. A., on the American bison, 377, 381, 385, 387, 450, 480.
"American Field," quotation from, 433.
  Fur Company, 488.
Andrews, Mr. Harry, 502.
_Andropogon provincialis_, 427, 429.
  _scoparius_, 429.
Argoll, Capt. Sam'l, discovery of bison by, 375, 378.
Arkansas, 375.
_Aristida purpurea_, 428
Ashe, Mr. Thomas, on the buffalo, 420, 485.
_Astragalus molissimus_, 429.
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railway, 493, 496, 498, 499.
Athabasca, buffaloes in, 523-524.
_Atriplex canescens_, 429.
Audubon and Bachman, observations by, 400.
Aurochs, or European bison, 394.

B.

Bailey, Lieut. H. K., 545.
Baird, Prof. S. F., expedition for buffaloes, sent out by, 529.
Baker & Co., Messrs. I. G., 411, 506.
Bedson, Mr. S. L., buffalo-breeding by, 452, 454-456.
  herd owned by, 458, 460.
Berlandier, Dr., on bison in Mexico, 381.
Bismark Grove, Kans., buffaloes at, 461.
Bison, the American.
  abundance of, 387-393.
  accidents to herds of, 420.
  adult bull of, 402-406.
  cow of, 406, 436.
  affection in the 433.
  albinism in the, 414.
  as a beast of burden, 457.
  bones of the, 445.
  breeding habits of, 425.
  season of, 396, 415.
  calf of the, 366-401, 425, 433.
  change of form in, 377, 394, 409.
  character of, 393.
  color of, 396-403.
  courage of, 432.
  cow of, 406-436.
Bison, cross-breeding, 451-458.
  domestication of, 379, 451-458.
  fear in 432.
  food of, 426-429.
  habits of, 415-426.
    in running, 422, 430-431.
    in winter, 423.
    when wounded, 426.
  hair of, 449.
  "hide" of, 445, 505-507.
  horns of, 405, 406.
  hunting the, 405, 470, 478, 480, 483, 484, 536-542.
  meat of, 446, 448.
  mental capacity of, 429-434.
  migrations of, 389, 420, 424-429.
  monograph of, by J. A. Allen, 387.
  "mountain" form of, 407-412.
  mounted skins of, 396, 412, 546-548.
  pelage of, 412-414.
  protection of, possible, 435.
  rank of, with other _Bovidæ_, 393.
  reasoning powers of, 429.
  robe of, 441-415, 453, 470.
  shedding of pelage of, 412-414.
  size of, 405, 407.
  slaughter of the, 486-513.
  Smithsonian expedition for, 529-546.
  "spike bull" of, 401.
  "wood" variety of, 407-412.
  "yearling" of, 401.
Blackford, Mr. E. G., buffaloes presented by, 463, 527.
Bones, buffalo, utilization of, 445.
Boskowitz, Messrs. J. & A., 394.
_Bouteloua oligostachya_, 427, 428.
Boyd, Mr. Irvin, 534, 537, 538, 540.
Breeding of the buffalo, 390, 415, 425.
  with domestic cattle, 452-458, 528.
British Possessions, buffalo in the 384, 408, 489, 504, 523.
Brown, Mr. W. Harvey, 534, 535, 541.
_Buchloë dactyloides_, 428.
Buffalo (see Bison, American.)
Buffalo Bill (see Cody, Hon. W. F.)
Buffalo Buttes, 538, 540, 542.
Buffalo "chips," 541.
Buffalo grass, 427, 428.
Byrd, Col. William, 376, 449.

C.

Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar Nuñez, 373.
Calf of the buffalo, 396-401, 425, 433.
  pelage of, 396-398.
  capture of a, 532.
Calf Creek, Montana, 535, 536.
Canadian Pacific Railway, 504.
Captivity, list of buffaloes in, 458-464.
Carey, Hon. Joseph M., 522.
Carolina, North, 376, 379.
  South, 379.
Castañeda, description of American bison by, 374.
Catlin, George, on buffalo calves, 398.
  on buffalo hunting, 472, 481.
  on extermination of the buffalo, 488.
  on habits of the buffalo, 419, 423, 434.
  stopped by herd, 392.
Cattle-growers, value of bison to, 451-458.
Cattle, Western range, 452.
Central Park menagerie, New York, 463.
Change of form in American bison, 377, 394, 409.
Character of the American bison, 393.
Chase of the buffalo, on horseback, 470-478.
Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, courtesies extended by, 530.
"Chips," buffalo, 451.
Christy, Mr. Miller, on the buffalo, 523.
Cochran, Lieut. Col. M. A., 534, 545.
Cody, Hon. W. F., 460, 477.
Cole, the Hon. Mr., of California, 514.
Color of the American bison, 396, 403.
Colorado, 488, 523.
Completeness of the bison's extermination, 521-525.
Conger, the Hon. Mr., 516, 517, 519.
Congress, National Zoological Park established by, 528.
Congressional legislation to protect the bison, 513-521.
Cory, Mr. C. B., 523.
Coronado, penetration of buffalo range by, 374, 383.
Cortez, American bison first seen by, 373.
Courage, instinct of, in the bison, 432.
Cow, the adult buffalo, 406, 436.
  young buffalo, 406.
Cox, Hon. S. S., 515, 516.
Cree Indians, 478, 489, 504, 505, 527.
Cross-breeding between the buffalo and domestic cattle, 451-458.

D.

Dakota, 389, 489, 490, 512.
Davis, Mr. J. N., 512.
Davis, Mr. Theo. R., 483.
Davis, Mr. W. W., records of Coronado's march, by, 383.
Dawes, Hon. Henry L., 517.
Decoying and driving buffaloes, 483.
De Solis, description of bison, by, 373.
Destruction of the southern herd, 492-502.
  northern herd, 502-513.
Discovery of the American bison:
  in captivity, by Cortez, 373.
    eastern North America, by Argoll, 375.
    Illinois, by Father Hennepin, 375.
    Texas, by Cabeza de Vaca, 373.
      Coronado, 373, 383.
District of Columbia, 375, 378.
Distribution of the American bison, 376-383, 402, 503, 508.
  geographical center of, 388.
Division of the great buffalo range, 492.
Dodge, Col. R. I., observations on the buffalo, by, 389, 392,
  400-409, 424, 433, 471, 474, 493, 495, 498.
Domestication of the American bison, 379, 452-458, 528.
Dry Creek, Big, 512, 530, 534.
  Little, 532, 533, 535.
Dupree. Mr. F., buffaloes owned by, 462.

E.

Eldridge, the Hon. Mr., 516.
Estimate of buffaloes, 391, 504, 509.
Expedition for bison sent by the Smithsonian, 522, 529-546.
Expeditions of the Red River half-breeds, 436, 437, 474.
Extermination of the American bison:
  cause of the, 454.
  completeness of the, 521-525.
  effects of the, 525-527.
  methods employed in the, 465, 470, 478, 480, 483, 484.
  north of Union Pacific Railway, 502-513.
  progress of the, 484.
  share of the Indians in the, 478.
  south of the Union Pacific Railway, 498-502.
  west of the Rocky Mountains, 486.
Extermination of American quadrupeds, 487, 491, 502.

F.

Fear, instinct of, in the bison, 432.
Fee, Mr. C. S., favors extended by, 545.
_Festuca scabrella_, 429.
"Field," the London, quotation from, 523.
Fleet, Henry, mention of bison on the Potomac, by, 378.
Food of the bison, 426-434.
"Forest and Stream," quotations from, 411, 511.
Forney, Mr. A. H., 531.
Fort Keogh, buffaloes near, 509.
Fort, the Hon. Mr., of Illinois, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519.

G.

Gaur, or Indian bison, 393.
Geographical distribution of the bison, 376-388, 492.
Georgia, 379.
Gibson, Col. Geo. M., 544, 545.
Godwin, Mr. Harry P., 546.
Goode, Prof. G. Brown, 379.
Goodnight, Mr. Charles, buffaloes owned by, 460.
Great Slave Lake, 384, 408.
Group of buffaloes in the National Museum. 546-548.

H.

Habits of the bison, 415-426.
Hair of the buffalo, uses of the, 449.
Half-breeds of the Northwest Territories, 436, 474, 488, 504.
Hannaford, Mr. J. M., letter from, 507.
"Harper's Magazine," quotation from, 483.
Harris, Capt. Moses, 521.
Harris, Mr. Robert, courtesies extended by, 530.
Haskins, Mr. Edward, train-master, 544.
Hawley, Hon. J. R., 517.
Hazen, General W. B., on buffalo slaughter, 514, 516.
Hedley, Mr. George H., with expedition for bison 531.
Hennepin, Father, bison seen in Illinois by, 388.
Herds, list of captive bison, 458-464.
Hides, buffalo, 445, 505, 506, 507.
High Divide, 535, 536, 538, 542.
Hind, Prof. H. Y., 407, 476, 478.
Holman, Hon. W. S., 516.
Hornaday, W. T., group of bison by, 546-548.
Horns of the American bison, 405, 407.
Huguenot settlers, domestication of bison by, 379, 451.
Hunting the buffalo, method of
  decoying and driving, 483.
  horseback, 470.
  impounding, 478.
  on snow shoes, 484.
  "still-hunt," 465.
  "surround," 480.
Hunting on the Musselshell River, 539.
Hybrid, the buffalo-domestic, 454-457.

I.

Idaho, 383.
Illinois, 385-388.
Impounding buffaloes, 478.
Indiana, 385.
Indians:
  responsibility of, for buffalo slaughter, 506.
  robes marketed by northern, 505.
  share of the, in buffalo destruction, 478, 480, 483, 484,
  489, 490, 500, 505, 506, 512.
  starving for lack of the buffalo, 526.
  who subsisted on the buffalo, 526.

J.

Jones, Mr. C. J., breeding of buffaloes, by, 452, 454, 456.
  buffaloes captured by, 458, 523.
  buffalo herd owned by, 458.

K.

Kansas, 391, 424, 496, 501.
Kasson, Hon. J. A., 517.
Kenaston, Prof. C. A., 505.
Kentucky, 388, 420.
Keogh, Fort, 509, 531.
_Koeleria cristata_, 429.

L.

Lewis and Clark, buffaloes seen by, 389, 483.
Lincoln Park, Chicago, buffaloes in, 462.
Loco weed not eaten by the buffalo, 429.
Louisiana, 380.

M.

Macoun, Prof. John, 524, 526.
"Manitoba and the great Northwest," 524, 526.
Maryland, 378.
McCormick, Hon. R. C., 514, 516, 518.
McGillycuddy, Dr. V. T., buffaloes owned by, 462.
McNaney, Mr. James, 421, 424, 467, 534, 537, 538, 540, 542.
Meat of the buffalo, 446, 448.
Mental capacity of the American bison, 429-434.
Merrill, Dr. J. C., 530, 545.
Mexico, 381.
Migrating habits of the buffalo, 389, 420, 424-425.
Miles City, Montana, 531, 534, 541.
Miller, Mr. Roswell, courtesies extended by, 530.
Minnesota, 385.
Mississippi, 380.
Monograph on "The American Bison," 387.
Montana, 421, 508, 509, 510, 511.
"Mountain buffalo," 407-412.
Mounted skins of buffaloes, 396, 412, 546-548.
Museum, National, 395, 527, 546.
Musselshell River, 535, 539.

N.

National Museum, live buffaloes at the, 395, 463, 527.
  mounted buffaloes in the, 396, 397, 401, 402, 405, 406, 407,
  546-548.
Nelson, Mr. E. W., 385.
New Mexico, 383.
New York, 385.
Northern herd, destruction of the, 502-513.
Northern Pacific Railway, 502, 507, 511, 513.
  courtesies extended by, 530.
Northwest Territories (British), 384, 408, 489, 523.

O.

Ohio, 385.
Omaha Indians, buffalo hunting by, 477.
Oregon, 389.
Oregon trail, 491.

P.

Partello, Lieut. J. M. T., 509.
Peace River, buffaloes on the, 524.
Pelage of the American bison, 396, 414, 415, 442, 453.
Pemmican, 447.
Pennsylvania, the buffalo in, 386, 387, 420, 485.
Pennsylvania Railway, courtesies extended by, 530.
Phillips, Mr. Henry R., courtesies extended by, 531, 545.
"Plains of the Great West," 389, 391, 409.
_Poa tenuifolia_, 429.
Porcupine Creek, buffaloes on, 512, 522, 532.
Products of the buffalo, 434-451.
Protection of American animals, 435, 520, 521.
  the bison possible, 435, 520.

R.

Ranch, LU-bar, 532, 543.
  the HV, 534, 544.
Railways, influence of the, in buffalo slaughter, 490-493, 507.
Rank of the American bison, 393.
Reasoning faculty of the bison, 429-430.
Recuperative power of the bison, 426.
Red Buttes, 531.
Red River half-breeds, 474, 488.
"Red River Settlement," 436, 450, 474, 475.
Regan, the Hon. Mr., 518.
Robe of the American bison, 441-445, 453, 470.
  best season for taking, 442.
  preparation of the, 442, 443, 470.
  trade in, 513.
  utilization of, 411, 505.
  value of, 394, 444, 445.
  varieties and classification of, 443, 444.
Ross, Mr. Alexander (_see_ "Red River Settlement.")
"Running" buffaloes, 470.
Running power and habits of the buffalo, 422, 430, 431.
Russell, Mr. L. S., 534, 536, 537, 538.

S.

Sage brush, 547.
Sand Creek, Montana, 534, 535, 538.
Schulz, Dr., on the buffalo in Athabasca, 523-524.
Secretary of War, favors extended by, 530-545.
Shufeldt, Dr. R. W., on mountain buffaloes, 411.
Sibley, Hon. H. H., 474.
"Sioux City Journal," quotation from, 503.
Sioux Indiana, destruction of buffaloes by, 490, 497, 500, 505.
Slaughter of the buffalo, 486-513.
Smith, Mr. V., 510, 512.
Smithsonian Butte, 539.
Smithsonian Institution expedition for buffaloes, 522, 529-546.
Snow-shoes, hunting buffaloes on, 484.
Southern buffalo herd, destruction of, 492-502.
"Spike" bull buffalo, 401.
"Star, Washington," description from the, 546-548.
Starin, Mr. J. H., buffaloes owned by, 463.
Statistics of the slaughter of the southern herd, 498-502.
  buffaloes now living, 458-461, 525.
Stephenson, Dr. William, 522.
Still hunt, 465-510.
_Stipa comata_, 429.
  _sparica_, 428.
  _viridula_, 429.
Stub-horn bull, killed by author, 542.

T.

Tepee, hides required for a, 505.
Temper of the bison, 434.
Tennessee, 388.
Texas, existence the bison in, 374, 381, 501, 502.
Thompson, Lieut. C. B., 545.
Thompson, Mr. Frank, courtesies extended by, 530.
"Times, Kansas City," quotation from, 461.

U.

Ullman, Mr. Joseph buffalo product handled by, 394.
Utah, 383.
Utilization of the buffalo, 437.

V.

Value of the bison to man, 434-451, 526.
Value of a single bison on the range, 435, 436.
  buffalo to cattle-growers, 451, 458.
  buffalo-robe, 498.
    products handled by two firms, 439-440.
Varner, Mr. Allen, 491.
Virginia, the buffalo in, 376, 378, 379.

W.

Wastefulness in buffalo slaughter, 494, 496-498, 510.
Weapons used in buffalo hunting, 466, 467, 470, 477.
West, Mr. C. S., 534, 538, 541, 543.
Wichita (Kansas) "World," 500.
Wilkins, Col. John D., 545.
Wilson, the Hon. Mr., 514.
Winston, Mr. B. C., 463, 522.
Winter habits of the buffalo, 423.
Wisconsin, 385.
Wood buffaloes, 407-412.
Wounded bison, habits of, 426.
Wyoming, 522.

Y.

Yearling of the buffalo, 401.
Yellowstone Park, buffaloes in, 512, 521, 522, 527.
Yellowstone Rivers, 531, 544.
Young Mr. Harrison, S., 524.

Z.

Zoological Garden of Cincinnati, 462.
  Philadelphia, 461.
  Park at Washington, establishment of, by Congress, 528.