A remarkable article recently appeared in the _Scientific American_,
written by Prof. Chas. F. Holder, entitled, "A Crime of a Century," in
which is described the extermination, the wiping out of the American
bison.
"In 1870, and later," said an army officer, "the plains were alive with
bison, and in crossing at places I had difficulty in avoiding them,
so vast were the herds. If anyone had told me then that in twenty or
thirty years they would have become almost entirely extinct I should
have regarded the statement as that of an insane person."
We are able to corroborate this statement. In August, 1869, while
crossing the Kansas plains in a stagecoach we had the privilege,
as we regard it now, of seeing one of the largest herds of buffalo
then remaining. When first seen, at a distance of from three to five
miles, we could distinctly hear the roaring of the animals, who had
been stampeded, perhaps by hunters, who were at that time wantonly
destroying the grand creatures for their robes. That so many of these
animals could have been killed in mere wantonness, says Prof. Holder,
seems incredible when their vast numbers are realized. We first hear of
the bison from Cortez and his followers in 1521. Montezuma had one in a
zoölogical garden, the specimen, in all probability, having been caught
in Coahuila. In 1530 Cabeza saw them in Texas, and in 1542 Coronado
found a herd in what is now the Indian Territory, one of his officers
describing them as horrible beasts that demoralized the horses. In 1612
Sir Samuel Argall observed herds of bison near the national capital,
and, it is said, two hundred and eighty-seven years ago herds of bison
grazed on the site of the capitol building at Washington. In 1678
Father Hennepin observed them in what is now northern Illinois, and in
October, 1729, Col. W. Bird saw herds in North Carolina and Virginia.
It is known, in fact, that the bison formerly ranged in millions from
the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of Mexico, from Texas to the Great
Slave Lake, and as far west as central Nevada. "As to their numbers,
they were like the sands of the seashore, and the accounts given by
those who hunted them twenty or thirty years ago to-day seem like
vagaries of a disordered imagination." Colonel Dodge, in his memoirs,
states that on one occasion he rode twenty-five miles in Arkansas,
always being in a herd of buffaloes, or many small herds, with but
a small separating strip between them. The animals paid but little
attention to him, merely moving slowly out of the way or advancing,
bringing the whole herd of thousands down on him with the roar of an
avalanche. This he met by standing fast and firing when they came
within short range, the shot causing them to divide. This he did as a
protection, otherwise they would have run him down and crushed man,
horses, and wagon. This herd was later found to be fifty miles wide and
to occupy five days in passing a given point on its way north. It was
estimated that the herd comprised half a million buffaloes. A train
on the Kansas Pacific road in that state in 1868 passed between the
towns of Ellsworth and Sheridan--one hundred and twenty miles--through
a continuous herd of buffaloes. They were packed so that the earth
was black, and more than once the train was stopped, the surging mass
becoming a menace to human safety. This is the same herd first seen
by us in August, 1869, and again in 1871 and 1872. An army officer
relates that he was at that time on duty in the pay department, which
made it necessary for him to travel on the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe
railroad. One day the train entered a large herd, which scattered and
seemed to go wild at the shrieking of the whistle and the ringing of
the bell. As the train went on the thicker they became, until the very
earth appeared to be a rolling mass of humps as far as the eye could
see. Suddenly some of the animals nearest turned and charged; others
fell in behind, and down upon the train they came like an avalanche.
The engineer stopped the engine, let off steam and whistled to stop
them, while the passengers fired from the platforms and windows with
rifles and revolvers, but it was like trying to stay a tidal wave. On
they came, the earth trembling, and plunged head down into the train.
Some were wedged in between the cars, others beneath; and so great was
the crush that they toppled three cars over and actually scrambled over
them, one buffalo becoming bogged by having his legs caught in the
window.
The question of interest to-day is how was it possible to destroy so
many animals in so short a time and what methods were employed? Many
were destroyed by stampeding over precipices. In 1867 two thousand
buffaloes became entangled in the quicksands of the Platte river. At
another time a herd was lost by breaking through the ice of Lac Qui
Parle in Minnesota. The cold winters of the north killed many. But man
was their greatest foe. He soon found that the buffaloes had a value.
The Indians slaughtered them for their skins, bone and for food. The
white man, however, killed for sport, for the hides and heads, and to
provide the gangs of railroad men with meat. The animal at this time
had a value estimated at $5, which was sufficient to attract an army
of destroyers. One firm in New York between 1876 and 1884 paid for
hides alone nearly $1,000,000. The government never interfered. The
real extermination of the buffalo, in the opinion of Prof. Holder,
was caused by the demands of trade, aided and abetted by sportsmen,
Indians, and others; but the blame really lies with the government
that in all these years permitted a few ignorant congressmen to block
legislation in favor of the protection of the bison, so that all the
efforts of humanitarians were defeated and the bills when passed pigeon
holed.
The still hunter was the most insidious enemy of the buffalo, a single
man, by sneaking upon a herd, having been known to kill one thousand
in a single season. Capt. Jack Bridges, of Kansas, killed 1,142
buffaloes in six weeks. In the different states there were regular
killing outfits that cost, in rifles, horses, carts, etc., from $2,000
to $5,000. Such methods developed some famous characters. Buffalo
Bill (Col. W. F. Cody) was one. He contracted with the Kansas Pacific
railroad to furnish them with all the buffalo the men could eat as the
road was built; and, according to Mr. Cody's statement, they ate 4,280
buffaloes in eighteen months, for which he received $500 per month,
"the price he paid for his title."
There were living at the last government census, made in 1891, 256
pure-blooded buffaloes in captivity, the last of the race.
A buffalo robe is now a scarce article and a well-preserved specimen
brings a high price. Massive heads of old bull buffaloes are preserved
in many museums and are valued at from $150 to $250.
Mark Twain once said that the most wonderful scene he had ever looked
upon was an enormous herd of buffaloes in Colorado.
Mr. John D. Dunham, formerly United States land commissioner in
Wyoming, and later connected with the Yellowstone Park commission,
recently stated that there were between 120 and 140 buffaloes left in
the United States last autumn, and the mortality among the surviving
beasts was greater last winter than ever before during their captivity.
Despite the severe penalty for killing the big animals in the National
Park, a dozen or more buffaloes have been slain there every year. Last
year a form of influenza destroyed some of them, and there are probably
no more than fifty of the veterans of the plains left. Baker, in his
"Wild Beasts and Their Ways," says: "The bison is a grand-looking
creature, and in my opinion it is the most striking of all wild
animals."