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[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.]