The original buffalo herds have been estimated to have contained
from 30,000,000 to 60,000,000 animals, and in 1870 it was estimated
that about 5,500,000 still survived. A number of men now living were
privileged to see some of the great herds of the West before they were
finally destroyed. Dr. George Bird Grinnell writes:
“In 1870, I happened to be on a train that was stopped for three hours
to let a herd of buffalo pass. We supposed they would soon pass by,
but they kept coming. On a number of occasions in earlier days the
engineers thought that they could run through the herds, and that,
seeing the locomotive, the buffalo would stop or turn aside; but after
a few locomotives had been ditched by the animals the engineers got in
the way of respecting the buffaloes’ idiosyncrasies....
“Up to within a few years, in northern Montana and southern Alberta,
old buffalo trails have been very readily traceable by the eye, even
as one passed on a railroad train. These trails, fertilized by the
buffalo and deeply cut so as to long hold moisture, may still be seen
in summer as green lines winding up and down the hills to and from the
water-courses.”
Concerning the former abundance of antelope, Dr. Grinnell says: “For
many years I have held the opinion that in early days on the plains,
as I saw them, antelope were much more abundant than buffalo. Buffalo,
of course, being big and black, were impressive if seen in masses and
were visible a long way off. Antelope, smaller and less conspicuous in
color, were often passed unnoticed, except by a person of experience,
who might recognize that distant white dots might be antelope and not
buffalo bones or puff balls. I used to talk on this subject with men
who were on the plains in the ’60’s and ’70’s, and all agreed that,
so far as their judgment went, there were more antelope than buffalo.
Often the buffalo were bunched up into thick herds and gave the
impression of vast numbers. The antelope were scattered, and, except in
winter, when I have seen herds of thousands, they were pretty evenly
distributed over the prairie.
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