the knot broke up, and, still keeping in a compact mass, started on a
trot for the main herd, some half a mile oft". To his very great
astonishment, the doctor now saw that the central and controlling figure
of this mass was a poor little calf so newly born as scarcely to be able
to walk. After going 50 or 100 paces the calf laid down, the bulls
disposed themselves in a circle as before, and the wolves, who had
trotted along on each side of their retreating supper, sat down and
licked their chaps again; and though the doctor did not see the finale,
it being late and the camp distant, he had no doubt that the noble
fathers did their whole duty by their offspring, and carried it safely
to the herd."
(6) _Temper._--I have asked many old buffalo hunters for facts in regard
to the temper and disposition of herd buffaloes, and all agree that they
are exceedingly quiet, peace loving, and even indolent animals at all
times save during the rutting season. Says Colonel Dodge: "The habits of
the buffalo are almost identical with those of the domestic cattle.
Owing either to a more pacific disposition, or to the greater number of
bulls, there, is very little fighting, even at the season when it might
be expected. I have been among them for days, have watched their conduct
for hours at a time, and with the very best opportunities for
observation, but have never seen a regular combat between bulls. They
frequently strike each other with their horns, but this seems to be a
mere expression of impatience at being crowded."
In referring to the "running season" of the buffalo, Mr. Catlin says:
"It is no uncommon thing at this season, at these gatherings, to see
several thousands in a mass eddying and wheeling about under a cloud of
dust, which is raised by the bulls as they are pawing in the dirt, or
engaged in desperate combats, as they constantly are, plunging and
butting at each other in a most furious manner."
On the whole, the disposition of the buffalo is anything but vicious.
Both sexes yield with surprising readiness to the restraints of
captivity, and in a remarkably short time become, if taken young, as
fully domesticated as ordinary cattle. Buffalo calves are as easily
tamed as domestic ones, and make very interesting pets. A prominent
trait of character in the captive buffalo is a mulish obstinacy or
headstrong perseverance under certain circumstances that is often very
annoying. When a buffalo makes up his mind to go through a fence, he is
very apt to go through, either peaceably or by force, as occasion
requires. Fortunately, however, the captive animals usually accept a
fence in the proper spirit, and treat it with a fair degree of respect.
VIII. VALUE OF THE BUFFALO TO MAN.
It may fairly be supposed that if the people of this country could have
been made to realize the immense money value of the great buffalo herds
as they existed in 1870, a vigorous and successful effort would have
been made to regulate and restrict the slaughter. The fur seal of
Alaska, of which about 100,000 are killed annually for their skins,
yield an annual revenue to the Government of $100,000 and add $900,000
more to the actual wealth of the United States. It pays to protect those
seals, and we mean to protect them against all comers who seek their
unrestricted slaughter, no matter whether the poachers be American,
English, Russian, or Canadian. It would be folly to do otherwise, and if
those who would exterminate the fur seal by shooting them in the water
will not desist for the telling, then they must by the compelling.
The fur seal is a good investment for the United States, and their
number is not diminishing. As the buffalo herds existed in 1870, 500,000
head of bulls, young and old, could have been killed every year for a
score of years without sensibly diminishing the size of the herds. At a
low estimate these could easily have been made to yield various products
worth $5 each, as follows: Kobe, $2.50; tongue, 20 cents; meat of
hindquarters, $2; bones, horns, and hoofs, 25 cents; total, $5. And the
amount annually added to the wealth of the United States would have been
$2,500,000.
On all the robes taken for the market, say, 200,000, the Government
could have collected a tax of 50 cents each, which would have yielded a
sum doubly sufficient to have maintained a force of mounted police fully
competent to enforce the laws regulating the slaughter. Had a contract
for the protection of the buffalo been offered at $50,000 per annum, ay,
or even half that sum, an army of competent men would have competed for
it every year, and it could have been carried out to the letter. But, as
yet, the American people have not learned to spend money for the
protection of valuable game; and by the time they do learn it, there
will be no game to protect.
Even despite the enormous waste of raw material that ensued in the
utilization of the buffalo product, the total cash value of all the
material derived from this source, if it could only be reckoned up,
would certainly amount to many millions of dollars--perhaps twenty
millions, all told. This estimate may, to some, seem high, but when we
stop to consider that in eight years, from 1876 to 1884, a single firm,
that of Messrs. J. & A. Boskowitz, 105 Greene street, New York, paid out
the enormous sum of $923,070 (nearly one million) for robes and hides,
and that in a single year (1882) another firm, that of Joseph Ullman,
165 Mercer street, New York, paid out $216,250 for robes and hides, it
may not seem so incredible.
Had there been a deliberate plan for the suppression of all statistics
relating to the slaughter of buffalo in the United States, and what it
yielded, the result could not have been more complete barrenness than
exists to-day in regard to this subject. There is only one railway
company which kept its books in such a manner as to show the kind and
quantity of its business at that time. Excepting this, nothing is known
definitely.
Fortunately, enough facts and figures were recorded during the hunting
operations of the Red River half-breeds to enable us, by bringing them
all together, to calculate with sufficient exactitude the value of the
buffalo to them from 1820 to 1840. The result ought to be of interest to
all who think it is not worth while to spend money in preserving our
characteristic game animals.
In Ross's "Red River Settlement," pp. 242-273, and Schoolcraft's "North
American Indians," Part iv, pp. 101-110, are given detailed accounts of
the conduct and results of two hunting expeditions by the half-breeds,
with many valuable statistics. On this data we base our calculation.
Taking the result of one particular day's slaughter as an index to the
methods of the hunters in utilizing the products of the chase, we find
that while "not less than 2,500 animals were killed," out of that number
only 375 bags of pemmican and 240 bales of dried meat were made. "Now,"
says Mr. Ross," making all due allowance for waste, 750 animals would
have been ample for such a result. What, then, we might ask, became of
the remaining 1,750! * * * Scarcely one-third in number of the animals
killed is turned to account."
A bundle of dried meat weighs 60 to 70 pounds, and a bag of pemmican 100
to 110 pounds. If economically worked up, a whole buffalo cow yields
half a bag of pemmican (about 55 pounds) and three-fourths of a bundle
of dried meat (say 45 pounds). The most economical calculate that from
eight to ten cows are required to load a single Red River cart. The
proceeds of 1,776 cows once formed 228 bags of pemmican, 1,213 bales of
dried meat, 166 sacks of tallow, each weighing 200 pounds, 556 bladders
of marrow weighing 12 pounds each, and the value of the whole was
$8,160. The total of the above statement is 132,057 pounds of buffalo
product for 1,776 cows, or within a fraction of 75 pounds to each cow.
The bulls and young animals killed were not accounted for.
The expedition described by Mr. Ross contained 1,210 carts and 620
hunters, and returned with 1,089,000 pounds of meat, making 900 pounds
for each cart, and 200 pounds for each individual in the expedition, of
all ages and both sexes. Allowing, as already ascertained, that of the
above quantity of product every 75 pounds represents one cow saved and
two and one third buffaloes wasted, it means that 14,520 buffaloes were
killed and utilized and 33,250 buffaloes were killed and eaten fresh or
wasted, and 47,770 buffaloes were killed by 620 hunters, or an average
of 77 buffaloes to each hunter. The total number of buffaloes killed for
each cart was 39.
Allowing, what was actually the case, that every buffalo killed would,
if properly cared for, have yielded meat, fat, and robe worth at least
$5, the total value of the buffaloes slaughtered by that expedition
amounted to $258,850, and of which the various products actually
utilized represented a cash value of $72,001 added to the wealth of the
Red River half-breeds.
In 1820 there went 540 carts to the buffalo plains; in 1825, 680; in
1830, 820; in 1835, 970; in 1840, 1,210.
From 1820 to 1825 the average for each year was 610; from 1825 to 1830,
750; from 1830 to 1835, 895; from 1835 to 1840, 1,000.
Accepting the statements of eye-witnesses that for every buffalo killed
two and one-third buffaloes are wasted or eaten on the spot, and that
every loaded cart represented thirty-nine dead buffaloes which were
worth when utilized $5 each, we have the following series of totals:
From 1820 to 1825 five expeditions, of 610 carts each, killed 118,950
buffaloes, worth $594,750.
From 1825 to 1830 five expeditions, of 750 carts each, killed 146,250
buffaloes, worth $731,250.
From 1830 to 1835 five expeditions, of 895 carts each, killed 174,525
buffaloes, worth $872,625.
From 1835 to 1840 five expeditions, of 1,090 carts each, killed 212,550
buffaloes, worth $1,062,750.
Total number of buffaloes killed in twenty years,[43] $652,275; total
value of buffaloes killed in twenty years,[43] $3,261,375; total value
of the product utilized[43] and added to the wealth of the settlements,
$978,412.
[Note 43: By the Red River half-breeds only.]
The Eskimo has his seal, which yields nearly everything that he
requires; the Korak of Siberia depends for his very existence upon his
reindeer; the Ceylon native has the cocoa-nut palm, which leaves him
little else to desire, and the North American Indian had the American,
bison. If any animal was ever designed by the hand of nature for the
express purpose of supplying, at one stroke, nearly all the wants of an
entire race, surely the buffalo was intended for the Indian.
And right well was this gift of the gods utilized by the children of
nature to whom it came. Up to the time when the United States Government
began to support our Western Indians by the payment of annuities and
furnishing quarterly supplies of food, clothing, blankets, cloth, tents,
etc., the buffalo had been the main dependence of more than 50,000
Indians who inhabited the buffalo range and its environs. Of the many
different uses to which the buffalo and his various parts were, put by
the red man, the following were the principal ones:
The body of the buffalo yielded fresh meat, of which thousands of tons
were consumed; dried meat, prepared in summer for winter use; pemmican
(also prepared in summer), of meat, fat, and berries; tallow, made up
into large balls or sacks, and kept in store; marrow, preserved in
bladders; and tongues, dried and smoked, and eaten as a delicacy.
The skin of the buffalo yielded a robe, dressed with the hair on, for
clothing and bedding; a hide, dressed without the hair, which made a
teepee cover, when a number were sewn together; boats, when sewn
together in a green state, over a wooden framework. Shields, made from
the thickest portions, as rawhide; ropes, made up as rawhide; clothing
of many kinds; bags for use in traveling; coffins, or winding sheets for
the dead, etc.
Other portions utilized were sinews, which furnished fiber for ropes,
thread, bow-strings, snow-shoe webs, etc.; hair, which was sometimes
made into belts and ornaments; "buffalo chips," which formed a valuable
and highly-prized fuel; bones, from which many articles of use and
ornament were made; horns, which were made into spoons, drinking
vessels, etc.
After the United States Government began to support the buffalo-hunting
Indians with annuities and supplies, the woolen blanket and canvas tent
took the place of the buffalo robe and the skin-covered teepee, and
"Government beef" took the place of buffalo meat. But the slaughter of
buffaloes went on just the same, and the robes and hides taken were
traded for useless and often harmful luxuries, such as canned
provisions, fancy knickknacks, whisky, fire-arms of the most approved
pattern, and quantities of fixed ammunition. During the last ten years
of the existence of the herds it is an open question whether the buffalo
did not do our Indians more harm than good. Amongst the Crows, who were
liberally provided for by the Government, horse racing was a common
pastime, and the stakes were usually dressed buffalo robes.[44]
[Note 44: On one occasion, which is doubtless still remembered with
bitterness by many a Crow of the Custer Agency, my old friend Jim
McNaney backed his horse Ogalalla against the horses of the whole Crow
tribe. The Crows forthwith formed a pool, which consisted of a huge pile
of buffalo robes, worth about $1,200, and with it backed their best
race-horse. He was forthwith "beaten out of sight" by Ogalalla, and
another grievance was registered against the whites.]
The total disappearance of the buffalo has made no perceptible
difference in the annual cost of the Indians to the Government. During
the years when buffaloes were numerous and robes for the purchase of
fire-arms and cartridges were plentiful, Indian wars were frequent, and
always costly to the Government. The Indians were then quite
independent, because they could take the war path at any time and live
on buffalo indefinitely. Now, the case is very different. The last time
Sitting Bull went on the war-path and was driven up into Manitoba, he
had the doubtful pleasure of living on his ponies and dogs until he
became utterly starved out. Since his last escapade, the Sioux have been
compelled to admit that the game is up and the war-path is open to them
no longer. Should they wish to do otherwise they know that they could
survive only by killing cattle, and cattle that are guarded by cowboys
and ranchmen are no man's game. Therefore, while we no longer have to
pay for an annual campaign in force against hostile Indians, the total
absence of the buffalo brings upon the nation the entire support of the
Indian, and the cash outlay each year is as great as ever.
The value of the American bison to civilized man can never be
calculated, nor even fairly estimated. It may with safety be said,
however, that it has been probably tenfold greater than most persons
have ever supposed. It would be a work of years to gather statistics of
the immense bulk of robes and hides, undoubtedly amounting to millions
in the aggregate; the thousands of tons of meat, and the train-loads of
bones which have been actually utilized by man. Nor can the effect of
the bison's presence upon the general development of the great West ever
be calculated. It has sunk into the great sum total of our progress, and
well nigh lost to sight forever.
As a mere suggestion of the immense value of "the buffalo product" at
the time when it had an existence, I have obtained from two of our
leading fur houses in New York City, with branches elsewhere, a detailed
statement of their business in buffalo robes and hides during the last
few years of the trade. They not only serve to show the great value of
the share of the annual crop that passed through their hands, but that
of Messrs. J. & A. Boskowitz is of especial value, because, being
carefully itemized throughout, it shows the decline and final failure of
the trade in exact figures. I am under many obligations to both these
firms for their kindness in furnishing the facts I desired, and
especially to the Messrs. Boskowitz, who devoted considerable time and
labor to the careful compilation of the annexed statement of their
business in buffalo skins.
_Memorandum of buffalo robes and hides bought by Messrs J. & A.
Boskowitz, 101-105 Greene Street, New York, and 202 Lake street,
Chicago, from 1876 to 1884._
+----------------------------------------+
|Year | Buffalo robes. | Buffalo hides. |
| |Number.| Cost. | Number.|Cost. |
+-----+-------+---------+--------+-------+
|1876 | 31,838| $39,620| None.| ... |
|1877 | 9,353| 35,560| None.| ... |
|1878 | 41,268| 150,600| None.| ... |
|1879 | 28,613| 110,420| None.| ... |
|1880 | 34,901| 176,200| 4,570|$13,140|
|1881 | 23,355| 151,800| 26,601| 89,030|
|1882 | 2,124| 15,600| 15,464| 44,140|
|1883 | 6,690| 29,770| 21,869| 67,190|
|1884 | None.| ...| 529| 1,720|
+-----+-------+---------+--------+-------+
|Total|177,142|$709,570 | 69,033|215,220|
+----------------------------------------+
Total number of buffalo skins handled in nine years, 246,175; total
cost, $924,790.
I have also been favored with some very interesting facts and figures
regarding the business done in buffalo skins by the firm of Mr. Joseph
Ullman, exporter and importer of furs and robes, of 165-107 Mercer
street, New York, and also 353 Jackson street, St. Paul, Minnesota. The
following letter was written me by Mr. Joseph Ullman on November 12,
1887, for which I am greatly indebted:
"Inasmuch as you particularly desire the figures for the years 1880-'86,
I have gone through my buffalo robe and hide accounts of those years,
and herewith give you approximate figures, as there are a good many
things to be considered which make it difficult to give exact figures.
"In 1881 we handled about 14,000 hides, average cost about $3.50, and
12,000 robes, average cost about $7.50.
"In 1882 we purchased between 35,000 and 40,000 hides, at an average
cost of about $3.50, and about 10,000 robes, at an average cost of about
$8.50.
"In 1883 we purchased from 6,000 to 7,000 hides and about 1,500 to 2,000
robes at a slight advance in price against the year previous.
"In 1884 we purchased less than 2,500 hides, and in my opinion these
were such as were carried over from the previous season in the
Northwest, and were not fresh-slaughtered skins. The collection of robes
this season was also comparatively small, and nominally robes carried
over from 1883.
"In 1885 the collection of hides amounted to little or nothing.
"The aforesaid goods were all purchased direct in the Northwest, that is
to say, principally in Montana, and shipped in care of our branch house
at St. Paul, Minnesota, to Joseph Ullman, Chicago. The robes mentioned
above were Indian-tanned robes and were mainly disposed of to the
jobbing trade both East and West.
"In 1881 and the years prior, the hides were divided into two kinds,
viz, robe hides, which were such as had a good crop of fur and were
serviceable for robe purposes, and the heavy and short-furred bull
hides. The former were principally sold to the John S. Way Manufacturing
Company, Bridgeport, Connecticut, and to numerous small robe tanners,
while the latter were sold for leather purposes to various hide-tanners
throughout the United States and Canada, and brought 51/2 to 81/2 cents per
pound. A very large proportion of these latter were tanned by the Wilcox
Tanning Company, Wilcox, Pennsylvania.
"About the fall of 1882 we established a tannery for buffalo robes in
Chicago, and from that time forth we tanned all the good hides which we
received into robes and disposed of them in the same manner as the
Indian-tanned robes.
"I don't know that I am called upon to express an opinion as to the
benefit or disadvantage of the extermination of the buffalo, but
nevertheless take the liberty to say that I think that some proper law
restricting the unpardonable slaughter of the buffalo should have been
enacted at the time. It is a well-known fact that soon after the
Northern Pacific Railroad opened up that portion of the country, thereby
making the transportation of the buffalo hides feasible, that is to say,
reducing the cost of freight, thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were
killed for the sake of the hide alone, while the carcasses were left to
rot on the open plains.
"The average prices paid the buffalo hunters [from 1880 to 1884] was
about as follows: For cow hides [robes!], $3; bull hides, $2.50;
yearlings, $1.50; calves, 75 cents; and the cost of getting the hides to
market brought the cost up to about $3.50 per hide."
The amount actually paid out by Joseph Ullman, in four years, for
buffalo robes and hides was about $310,000, and this, too, long after
the great southern herd had ceased to exist, and when the northern herd
furnished the sole supply. It thus appears that during the course of
eight years business (leaving out the small sum paid out in 1884), on
the part of the Messrs. Boskowitz, and four years on that of Mr. Joseph
Ullman, these two firms alone paid out the enormous sum of $1,233,070
for buffalo robes and hides which they purchased to sell again at a good
profit. By the time their share of the buffalo product reached the
consumers it must have represented an actual money value of about
$2,000,000.
Besides these two firms there were at that time many others who also
handled great quantities of buffalo skins and hides for which they paid
out immense sums of money. In this country the other leading firms
engaged in this business were I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton; P. B.
Weare & Co., Chicago; Obern, Hoosick & Co., Chicago and Saint Paul;
Martin Bates & Co., and Messrs. Shearer, Nichols & Co. (now Hurlburt,
Shearer & Sanford), of New York. There were also many others whose names
I am now unable to recall.
In the British Possessions and Canada the frontier business was largely
monopolized by the Hudson's Bay Fur Company, although the annual
"output" of robes and hides was but small in comparison with that
gathered in the United States, where the herds were far more numerous.
Even in their most fruitful locality for robes--the country south of the
Saskatchewan--this company had a very powerful competitor in the firm of
I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton, which secured the lion's share of the
spoil and sent it down the Missouri River.
It is quite certain that the utilization of the buffalo product, even so
far as it was accomplished, resulted in the addition of several millions
of dollars to the wealth of the people of the United States. That the
total sum, could it be reckoned up, would amount to at least fifteen
millions, seems reasonably certain; and my own impression is that twenty
millions would be nearer the mark. It is much to be regretted that the
exact truth can never be known, for in this age of universal slaughter a
knowledge of the cash value of the wild game of the United States that
has been killed up to date might go far toward bringing about the actual
as well as the theoretical protection of what remains.
* * * * *
UTILIZATION OF THE BUFFALO BY WHITE MEN.
_Robes._--Ordinarily the skin of a large ruminant is of little value in
comparison with the bulk of toothsome flesh it covers. In fattening
domestic cattle for the market, the value of the hide is so
insignificant that it amounts to no more than a butcher's perquisite in
reckoning up the value of the animal. With the buffalo, however, so
enormous was the waste of the really available product that probably
nine-tenths of the total value derived from the slaughter of the animal
came from his skin alone. Of this, about four-fifths came from the
utilization of the furry robe and one-fifth from skins classed as
"hides," which were either taken in the summer season, when the hair was
very short or almost absent, and used for the manufacture of leather and
leather goods, or else were the poorly-furred skins of old bulls.
The season for robe-taking was from October 15 to February 15, and a
little later in the more northern latitudes. In the United States the
hair of the buffalo was still rather short up to the first of November;
but by the middle of November it was about at its finest as to length,
density, color, and freshness. The Montana hunters considered that the
finest robes were those taken from November 15 to December 15. Before
the former date the hair had not quite attained perfection in length,
and after the latter it began to show wear and lose color. The winter
storms of December and January began to leave their mark upon the robes
by the 1st of February, chiefly by giving the hair a bleached and
weathered appearance. By the middle of February the pelage was decidedly
on the wane, and the robe-hunter was also losing his energy. Often,
however, the hunt was kept up until the middle of March, until either
the deterioration of the quality of the robe, the migration of the herds
northward, or the hunter's longing to return "to town" and "clean up,"
brought the hunt to an end.
On the northern buffalo range, the hunter, or "buffalo skinner," removed
the robe in the following manner:
When the operator had to do his work alone, which was almost always the
case, he made haste to skin his victims while they were yet warm, if
possible, and before _rigor mortis_ had set in; but, at all hazards,
before they should become hard frozen. With a warm buffalo he could
easily do his work single-handed, but with one rigid or frozen stiff it
was a very different matter.
His first act was to heave the carcass over until it lay fairly upon its
back, with its feet up in the air. To keep it in that position he
wrenched the head violently around to one side, close against the
shoulder, at the point where the hump was highest and the tendency to
roll the greatest, and used it very effectually as a chock to keep the
body from rolling back upon its side. Having fixed the carcass in
position he drew forth his steel, sharpened his sharp-pointed
"ripping-knife," and at once proceeded to make all the opening cuts in
the skin. Each leg was girdled to the bone, about 8 inches above the
hoof, and the skin of the leg ripped open from that point along the
inside to the median line of the body. A long, straight cut was then
made along the middle of the breast and abdomen, from the root of the
tail to the chin. In skinning cows and young animals, nothing but the
skin of the forehead and nose was left on the skull, the skin of the
throat and cheeks being left on the hide; but in skinning old bulls, on
whose heads the skin was very thick and tough, the whole head was left
unskinned, to save labor and time. The skin of the neck was severed in a
circle around the neck, just behind the ears. It is these huge heads of
bushy brown hair, looking, at a little distance, quite black, in sharp
contrast with the ghastly whiteness of the perfect skeletons behind
them, which gives such a weird and ghostly appearance to the lifeless
prairies of Montana where the bone-gatherer has not yet done his perfect
work. The skulls of the cows and young buffaloes are as clean and bare
as if they had been carefully macerated, and bleached by a skilled
osteologist.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. A DEAD BULL. From a photograph by L. A. Huffman.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. BUFFALO SKINNERS AT WORK. From a photograph by
L. A. Huffman.]
The opening cuts having been made, the broad-pointed "skinning-knife"
was duly sharpened, and with it the operator fell to work to detach the
skin from the body in the shortest possible time. The tail was always
skinned and left on the hide. As soon as the skin was taken off it was
spread out on a clean, smooth, and level spot of ground, and stretched
to its fullest extent, inside uppermost. On the northern range, very few
skins were "pegged out," _i. e._, stretched thoroughly and held by means
of wooden pegs driven through the edges of the skin into the earth. It
was practiced to a limited extent on the southern range during the
latter part of the great slaughter, when buffaloes were scarce and time
abundant. Ordinarily, however, there was no time for pegging, nor were
pegs available on the range to do the work with. A warm skin stretched
on the curly buffalo-grass, hair side down, sticks to the ground of
itself until it has ample time to harden. On the northern range the
skinner always cut the initials of his outfit in the thin subcutaneous
muscle which was always found adhering to the skin on each side, and
which made a permanent and very plain mark of ownership.
In the south, the traders who bought buffalo robes on the range
sometimes rigged up a rude press, with four upright posts and a huge
lever, in which robes that had been folded into a convenient size were
pressed into bales, like bales of cotton. These could be transported by
wagon much more economically than could loose robes. An illustration of
this process is given in an article by Theodore R. Davis, entitled "The
Buffalo Range," in _Harper's Magazine_ for January, 1869, Vol. xxxviii,
p. 163. The author describes the process as follows:
"As the robes are secured, the trader has them arranged in lots of ten
each, with but little regard for quality other than some care that
particularly fine robes do not go too many in one lot. These piles are
then pressed into a compact bale by means of a rudely constructed affair
composed of saplings and a chain."
On the northern range, skins were not folded until the time came to haul
them in. Then the hunter repaired to the scene of his winter's work,
with a wagon surmounted by a hay-rack (or something like it), usually
drawn by four horses. As the skins were gathered up they were folded
once, lengthwise down the middle, with the hair inside. Sometimes as
many as 100 skins were hauled at one load by four horses.
On one portion of the northern range the classification of buffalo
peltries was substantially as follows: Under the head _of robes_ was
included all cow skins taken during the proper season, from one year old
upward, and all bull skins from one to three years old. Bull skins over
three years of age were classed as _hides_, and while the best of them
were finally tanned and used as robes, the really poor ones were
converted into leather. The large robes, when tanned, were used very
generally throughout the colder portions of North America as sleigh
robes and wraps, and for bedding in the regions of extreme cold. The
small robes, from the young animals, and likewise many large robes, were
made into overcoats, at once the warmest and the most cumbersome that
ever enveloped a human being. Thousands of old bull robes were tanned
with the hair on, and the body portions were made into overshoes, with
the woolly hair inside--absurdly large and uncouth, but very warm.
I never wore a pair of buffalo overshoes without being torn by
conflicting emotions--mortification at the ridiculous size of my
combined foot-gear, big boots inside of huge overshoes, and supreme
comfort derived from feet that were always warm.
Besides the ordinary robe, the hunters and fur buyers of Montana
recognized four special qualities, as follows:
The "beaver robe," with exceedingly fine, wavy fur, the color of a
beaver, and having long, coarse, straight hairs coming through it. The
latter were of course plucked out in the process of manufacture. These
were very rare. In 1882 Mr. James McNaney took one, a cow robe, the only
one out of 1,200 robes taken that season, and sold it for $75, when
ordinary robes fetched only $3.50.
The "black-and-tan robe" is described as having the nose, flanks, and
inside of fore legs black-and-tan (whatever that may mean), while the
remainder of the robe is jet black.
A "buckskin robe" is from what is always called a "white buffalo," and
is in reality a dirty cream color instead of white. A robe of this
character sold in Miles City in 1882 for $200, and was the only one of
that character taken on the northern range during that entire winter. A
very few pure white robes have been taken, so I have been told, chiefly
by Indians, but I have never seen one.
A "blue robe" or "mouse-colored (?) robe" is one on which the body color
shows a decidedly bluish cast, and at the same time has long, fine fur.
Out of his 1,200 robes taken in 1882, Mr. McNaney picked out 12 which
passed muster as the much sought for blue robes, and they sold at $16
each.
As already intimated, the price paid on the range for ordinary buffalo
skins varied according to circumstances, and at different periods, and
in different localities, ranged all the way from 65 cents to $10. The
latter figure was paid in Texas in 1887 for the last lot of "robes" ever
taken. The lowest prices ever paid were during the tremendous slaughter
which annihilated the southern herd. Even as late as 1876, in the
southern country, cow robes brought on the range only from 65 to 90
cents, and bull robes $1.15. On the northern range, from 1881 to 1883,
the prices paid were much higher, ranging from $2.50 to $4.
[Illustration: FIG. 1. FIVE MINUTES' WORK. Photographed by L. A. Huffman.]
[Illustration: FIG. 2. SCENE ON THE NORTHERN BUFFALO RANGE. Photographed
by L. A. Huffman.]
A few hundred dressed robes still remain in the hands of some of the
largest fur dealers in New York, Chicago, and Montreal, which can be
purchased at prices much lower than one would expect, considering the
circumstances. In 1888, good robes, Indian tanned, were offered in New
York at prices ranging from $15 to $30, according to size and quality,
but in Montreal no first-class robes were obtainable at less than $40.
_Hides._--Next in importance to robes was the class of skins known
commercially as hides. Under this head were classed all skins which for
any reason did not possess the pelage necessary to a robe, and were
therefore fit only for conversion into leather. Of these, the greater
portion consisted of the skins of old bulls on which the hair was of
poor quality and the skin itself too thick and heavy to ever allow of
its being made into a soft, pliable, and light-weight robe. The
remaining portion of the hides marketed were from buffaloes killed in
spring and summer, when the body and hindquarters ware almost naked.
Apparently the quantity of summer-killed hides marketed was not very
great, for it was only the meanest and most unprincipled ones of the
grand army of buffalo-killers who were mean enough to kill buffaloes in
summer simply for their hides. It is said that at one time
summer-killing was practiced on the southern range to an extent that
became a cause for alarm to the great body of more respectable hunters,
and the practice was frowned upon so severely that the wretches who
engaged in it found it wise to abandon it.
_Bones._--Next in importance to robes and hides was the bone product,
the utilization of which was rendered possible by the rigorous climate
of the buffalo plains. Under the influence of the wind and sun and the
extremes of heat and cold, the flesh remaining upon a carcass dried up,
disintegrated, and fell to dust, leaving the bones of almost the entire
skeleton as clean and bare as if they had been stripped of flesh by some
powerful chemical process. Very naturally, no sooner did the live
buffaloes begin to grow scarce than the miles of bleaching' bones
suggested the idea of finding a use for them. A market was readily found
for them in the East, and the prices paid per ton were sufficient to
make the business of bone-gathering quite remunerative. The bulk of the
bone product was converted into phosphate for fertilizing purposes, but
much of it was turned into carbon for use in the refining of sugar.
The gathering of bones became a common industry as early as 1872, during
which year 1,135,300 pounds were shipped over the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fé Railroad. In the year following the same road shipped 2,743,100
pounds, and in 1874 it handled 6,914,950 pounds more. This trade
continued from that time on until the plains have been gleaned so far
back from the railway lines that it is no longer profitable to seek
them. For that matter, however, it is said that south of the Union
Pacific nothing worth the seeking now remains.
The building of the Northern Pacific Railway made possible the shipment
of immense quantities of dry bones. Even as late as 1886 overland
travelers saw at many of the stations between Jamestown, Dakota, and
Billings, Montana, immense heaps of bones lying alongside the track
awaiting shipment. In 1885 a single firm shipped over 200 tons of bones
from Miles City.
The valley of the Missouri River was gleaned by teamsters who gathered
bones from as far back as 100 miles and hauled them to the river for
shipment on the steamers. An operator who had eight wagons in the
business informed me that in order to ship bones on the river steamers
it was necessary to crush them, and that for crushed bones, shipped in
bags, a Michigan fertilizer company paid $18 per ton. Uncrushed bones,
shipped by the railway, sold for $12 per ton.
It is impossible to ascertain the total amount or value of the bone
product, but it is certain that it amounted to many thousand tons, and
in value must have amounted to some hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But for the great number of railroads, river steamers, and sea-going
vessels (from Texas ports) engaged in carrying this product, it would
have cut an important figure in the commerce of the country, but owing
to the many interests between which it was divided it attracted little
attention.
_Meat._--The amount of fresh buffalo meat cured and marketed was really
very insignificant. So long as it was to be had at all it was so very
abundant that it was worth only from 2 to 3 cents per pound in the
market, and many reasons combined to render the trade in fresh buffalo
meat anything but profitable. Probably not more than one one-thousandth
of the buffalo meat that might have been saved and utilized was saved.
The buffalo carcasses that were wasted on the great plains every year
during the two great periods of slaughter (of the northern and southern
herds) would probably have fed to satiety during the entire time more
than a million persons.
As to the quality of buffalo meat, it may be stated in general terms
that it differs in no way whatever from domestic beef of the same age
produced by the same kind of grass. Perhaps there is no finer grazing
ground in the world than Montana, and the beef it produces is certainly
entitled to rank with the best. There are many persons who claim to
recognize a difference between the taste of buffalo meat and domestic
beef; but for my part I do not believe any difference really exists,
unless it is that the flesh of the buffalo is a little sweeter and more
juicy. As for myself, I feel certain I could not tell the difference
between the flesh of a three-year old buffalo and that of a domestic
beef of the same age, nor do I believe any one else could, even on a
wager. Having once seen a butcher eat an elephant steak in the belief
that it was beef from his own shop, and another butcher eat _loggerhead
turtle_ steak for beef, I have become somewhat skeptical in regard to
the intelligence of the human palate.
As a matter of experiment, during our hunt for buffalo we had buffalo
meat of all ages, from one year up to eleven, cooked in as many
different ways as our culinary department could turn out. We had it
broiled, fried with batter, roasted, boiled, and stewed. The last
method, when employed upon slices of meat that had been hacked from a
frozen hind-quarter, produced results that were undeniably tough and not
particularly good. But it was an unfair way to cook any kind of meat,
and may be guarantied to spoil the finest beef in the world.
Hump meat from a cow buffalo not too old, cut in slices and fried in
batter, _a la cowboy_, is delicious--a dish fit for the gods. We had
tongues in plenty, but the ordinary meat was so good they were not half
appreciated. Of course the tenderloin was above criticism, and even the
round steaks, so lightly esteemed by the epicure, were tender and juicy
to a most satisfactory degree.
It has been said that the meat of the buffalo has a coarser texture or
"grain" than domestic beef. Although I expected to find such to be the
case, I found no perceptible difference whatever, nor do I believe that
any exists. As to the distribution of fat I am unable to say, for the
reason that our buffaloes were not fat.
It is highly probable that the distribution of fat through the meat, so
characteristic of the shorthorn breeds, and which has been brought about
only by careful breeding, is not found in either the beef of the buffalo
or common range cattle. In this respect, shorthorn beef no doubt
surpasses both the others mentioned, but in all other points, texture,
flavor, and general tenderness, I am very sure it does not.
It is a great mistake for a traveler to kill a patriarchal old bull
buffalo, and after attempting to masticate a small portion of him to
rise up and declare that buffalo meat is coarse, tough, and dry. A
domestic bull of the same age would taste as tough. It is probably only
those who have had the bad taste to eat bull-beef who have ever found
occasion to asperse the reputation of _Bison americanus_ as a beef
animal.
Until people got tired of them, buffalo tongues were in considerable
demand, and hundreds, if not even thousands, of barrels of them were
shipped east from the buffalo country.
_Pemmican._--Out of the enormous waste of good buffalo flesh one product
stands forth as a redeeming feature--pemmican. Although made almost
exclusively by the half-breeds and Indians of the Northwest it
constituted a regular article of commerce of great value to overland
travelers, and was much sought for as long as it was produced. Its
peculiar "staying powers," due to the process of its manufacture, which
yielded a most nourishing food in a highly condensed form, made it of
inestimable value to the overland traveler who must travel light or not
at all. A handful of pemmican was sufficient food to constitute a meal
when provisions were at all scarce. The price of pemmican in Winnipeg
was once as low as 2d. per pound, but in 1883 a very small quantity
which was brought in sold at 10 cents per pound. This was probably the
last buffalo pemmican made. H. M. Robinson states that in 1878 pemmican
was worth 1s. 3d. per pound.
The manufacture of pemmican, as performed by the Red River half-breeds,
was thus described by the Rev. Mr. Belcourt, a Catholic priest, who once
accompanied one of the great buffalo-hunting expeditions:[45]
[Note 45: Schoolcraft's History, Condition and Prospects of the Indian
Tribes, iv, p. 107.]
"Other portions which are destined to be made into pimikehigan, or
pemmican, are exposed to an ardent heat, and thus become brittle and
easily reducible to small particles by the use of a flail, the
buffalo-hide answering the purpose of a threshing-floor. The fat or
tallow, being cut up and melted in large kettles of sheet iron, is
poured upon this pounded meat, and the whole mass is worked together
with shovels until it is well amalgamated, when it is pressed, while
still warm, into bags made of buffalo skin, which are strongly sewed up,
and the mixture gradually cools and becomes almost as hard as a rock. If
the fat used in this process is that taken from the parts containing the
udder, the meat is called fine pemmican. In some cases, dried fruits,
such as the prairie pear and cherry, are intermixed, which forms what is
called seed pemmican. Tho lovers of good eating judge the first
described to be very palatable; the second, better; the third,
excellent. A taurean of pemmican weighs from 100 to 110 pounds. Some
idea may be formed of the immense destruction of buffalo by these people
when it is stated that a whole cow yields one-half a bag of pemmican and
three fourths of a bundle of dried meat; so that the most economical
calculate that from eight to ten cows are required for the load of a
single vehicle."
It is quite evident from the testimony of disinterested travelers that
ordinary pemmican was not very palatable to one unaccustomed to it as a
regular article of food. To the natives, however, especially the
Canadian _voyageur_, it formed one of the most valuable food products of
the country, and it is said that the demand for it was generally greater
than the supply.
_Dried, or "jerked" meat._--The most popular and universal method of
curing buffalo meat was to cut it into thin flakes, an inch or less in
thickness and of indefinite length, and without salting it in the least
to hang it over poles, ropes, wicker-frames, or even clumps of standing
sage brush, and let it dry in the sun. This process yielded the famous
"jerked" meat so common throughout the West in the early days, from the
Rio Grande to the Saskatchewan. Father Belcourt thus described the
curing process as it was practiced by the half-breeds and Indians of the
Northwest:
"The meat, when taken to camp, is cut by the women into long strips
about a quarter of an inch thick, which are hung upon the lattice-work
prepared for that purpose to dry. This lattice-work is formed of small
pieces of wood, placed horizontally, transversely, and equidistant from
each other, not unlike an immense gridiron, and is supported by wooden
uprights (trepieds). In a few days the meat is thoroughly desiccated,
when it is bent into proper lengths and tied into bundles of 60 or 70
pounds weight. This is called dried meat (viande seche). To make the
hide into parchment (so called) it is stretched on a frame, and then
scraped on the inside with a piece of sharpened bone and on the outside
with a small but sharp-curved iron, proper to remove the hair. This is
considered, likewise, the appropriate labor of women. The men break the
bones, which are boiled in water to extract the marrow to be used for
frying and other culinary purposes. The oil is then poured into the
bladder of the animal, which contains, when filled, about 12 pounds,
being the yield of the marrow-bones of two buffaloes."
In the Northwest Territories dried meat, which formerly sold at 2_d._
per pound, was worth in 1878 10_d._ per pound.
Although I have myself prepared quite a quantity of jerked buffalo meat,
I never learned to like it. Owing to the absence of salt in its curing,
the dried meat when pounded and made into a stew has a "far away" taste
which continually reminds one of hoofs and horns. For all that, and
despite its resemblance in flavor to Liebig's Extract of Beef, it is
quite good, and better to the taste than ordinary pemmican.
The Indians formerly cured great quantities of buffalo meat in this
way--in summer, of course, for use in winter--but the advent of that
popular institution called "Government beef" long ago rendered it
unnecessary for the noble red man to exert his squaw in that once
honorable field of labor.
During the existence of the buffalo herds a few thrifty and enterprising
white men made a business of killing buffaloes in summer and drying the
meat in bulk, in the same manner which to-day produces our popular
"dried beef." Mr. Allen states that "a single hunter at Hays City
shipped annually for some years several hundred barrels thus prepared,
which the consumers probably bought for ordinary beef."
_Uses of bison's hair._--Numerous attempts have been made to utilize the
woolly hair of the bison in the manufacture of textile fabrics. As early
as 1729 Col. William Byrd records the fact that garments were made of
this material, as follows:
"The Hair growing upon his Head and Neck is long and Shagged, and so
Soft that it will spin into Thread not unlike Mohair, and might be wove
into a sort of Camlet. Some People have Stockings knit of it, that would
have served an Israelite during his forty Years march thro' the
Wilderness."[46]
[Note 46: Westover MSS., i, p. 172.]
In 1637 Thomas Morton published, in his "New English Canaan," p. 98,[47]
the following reference to the Indians who live on the southern shore of
Lake Erocoise, supposed to be Lake Ontario:
[Note 47: Quoted by Professor Allen, "American Bisons," p. 107.]
"These Beasts [buffaloes, undoubtedly] are of the bignesse of a Cowe,
their flesh being very good foode, their hides good lether, their
fleeces very usefull, being a kind of wolle, as fine as the wolle of the
Beaver, and the Salvages doe make garments thereof."
Professor Allen quotes a number of authorities who have recorded
statements in regard to the manufacture of belts, garters, scarfs,
sacks, etc., from buffalo wool by various tribes of Indians.[48] He also
calls attention to the only determined efforts ever made by white men on
a liberal scale for the utilization of buffalo "wool" and its
manufacture into cloth, an account of which appears in Ross's "Red River
Settlement," pp. 69-72. In 1821 some of the more enterprising of the Red
River (British) colonists conceived the idea of making fortunes out of
the manufacture of woolen goods from the fleece of the buffalo, and for
that purpose organized the Buffalo Wool Company, the principal object of
which was declared to be "to provide a substitute for wool, which
substitute was to be the wool of the wild buffalo, which was to be
collected in the plains and manufactured both for the use of the
colonists and for export." A large number of skilled workmen of various
kinds were procured from England, and also a plant of machinery and
materials. When too late, it was found that the supply of buffalo wool
obtainable was utterly insufficient, the raw wool costing the company
1_s._ 6_d._ per pound, and cloth which it cost the company £2 10_s._
per yard to produce was worth only 4_s._ 6_d._ per yard in England. The
historian states that universal drunkenness on the part of all concerned
aided very materially in bringing about the total failure of the
enterprise in a very short time.
[Note 48: The American Bison, p. 197.]
While it is possible to manufacture the fine, woolly fur of the bison
into cloth or knitted garments, provided a sufficient supply of the raw
material could be obtained (which is and always has been impossible),
nothing could be more visionary than an attempt to thus produce salable
garments at a profit.
Articles of wearing apparel made of buffalo's hair are interesting as
curiosities, for their rarity makes them so, but that is the only end
they can ever serve so long as there is a sheep living.
In the National Museum, in the section of animal products, there is
displayed a pair of stockings made in Canada from the finest buffalo
wool, from the body of the animal. They are thick, heavy, and full of
the coarse, straight hairs, which it seems can never be entirely
separated from the fine wool. In general texture they are as coarse as
the coarsest sheep's wool would produce.
With the above are also displayed a rope-like lariat, made by the
Comanche Indians, and a smaller braided lasso, seemingly a sample more
than a full-grown lariat, made by the Otoe Indians of Nebraska. Both of
the above are made of the long, dark-brown hair of the head and
shoulders, and in spite of the fact that they have been twisted as hard
as possible, the ends of the hairs protrude so persistently that the
surface of each rope is extremely hairy.
_Buffalo chips._--Last, but by no means least in value to the traveler
on the treeless plains, are the droppings of the buffalo, universally
known as "buffalo chips." When over one year old and thoroughly dry,
this material makes excellent fuel. Usually it occurs only where
fire-wood is unobtainable, and thousands of frontiersmen have a million
times found it of priceless value. When dry, it catches easily, burns
readily, and makes a hot fire with but very little smoke, although it is
rapidly consumed. Although not as good for a fire as even the poorest
timber it is infinitely better than sage-brush, which, in the absence of
chips, is often the traveler's last resort.
It usually happens that chips are most-abundant in the sheltered
creek-bottoms and near the water-holes, the very situations which
travelers naturally select for their camps. In these spots the herds
have gathered either for shelter in winter or for water in summer, and
remained in a body for some hours. And now, when the cowboy on the
round-up, the surveyor, or hunter, who must camp out, pitches his tent
in the grassy coulée or narrow creek-bottom, his first care is to start
out with his largest gunning bag to "rustle some buffalo chips" for a
campfire. He, at least, when he returns well laden with the spoil of his
humble chase, still has good reason to remember the departed herd with
feelings of gratitude. Thus even the last remains of this most useful
animal are utilized by man in providing for his own imperative wants.
IX. THE PRESENT VALUE OF THE BISON TO CATTLE-GROWERS.
_The bison in captivity and domestication._--Almost from time immemorial
it has been known that the American bison takes kindly to captivity,
herds contentedly with domestic cattle, and crosses with them with the
utmost readiness. It was formerly believed, and indeed the tradition
prevails even now to quite an extent, that on account of the hump on the
shoulders a domestic cow could not give birth to a half-breed calf. This
belief is entirely without foundation, and is due to theories rather
than facts.
Numerous experiments in buffalo breeding have been made, and the subject
is far from being a new one. As early as 1701 the Huguenot settlers at
Manikintown, on the James River, a few miles above Richmond, began to
domesticate buffaloes. It is also a matter of historical record that in
1786, or thereabouts, buffaloes were domesticated and bred in captivity
in Virginia, and Albert Gallatin states that in some of the northwestern
counties the mixed breed was quite common. In 1815 a series of elaborate
and valuable experiments in cross-breeding the buffalo and domestic
cattle was begun by Mr. Robert Wickliffe, of Lexington, Ky., and
continued by him for upwards of thirty years.[49]
[Note 49: For a full account of Mr. Wickliffe's experiments, written
by himself, see Audubon and Bachman's "Quadrupeds of North America,"
vol. ii, pp. 52-54.]
Quite recently the buffalo-breeding operations of Mr. S. L. Bedson, of
Stony Mountain, Manitoba, and Mr. C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kans.,
have attracted much attention, particularly for the reason that the
efforts of both these gentlemen have been directed toward the practical
improvement of the present breeds of range cattle. For this reason the
importance of the work in which they are engaged can hardly be
overestimated, and the results already obtained by Mr. Bedson, whose
experiments antedate those of Mr. Jones by several years, are of the
greatest interest to western cattle-growers. Indeed, unless the stock of
pure-blood buffaloes now remaining proves insufficient for the purpose,
I fully believe that we will gradually see a great change wrought in the
character of western cattle by the introduction of a strain of buffalo
blood.
The experiments which have been made thus far prove conclusively that--
(1) The male bison crosses readily with the opposite sex of domestic
cattle, but a buffalo cow has never been known to produce a half-breed
calf.
(2) The domestic cow produces a half-breed calf successfully.
(3) The progeny of the two species is fertile to any extent, yielding
half-breeds, quarter, three-quarter breeds, and so on.
(4) The bison breeds in captivity with perfect regularity and success.
_Need of an improvement in range cattle._--Ever since the earliest days
of cattle-ranching in the West, stockmen have had it in their power to
produce a breed which would equal in beef-bearing qualities the best
breeds to be found upon the plains, and be so much better calculated to
survive the hardships of winter, that their annual losses would have
been very greatly reduced. Whenever there is an unusually severe winter,
such as comes about three times in every decade, if not even oftener,
range cattle perish by thousands. It is an absolute impossibility for
every ranchman who owns several thousand, or even several hundred, head
of cattle to provide hay for them, even during the severest portion of
the winter season, and consequently the cattle must depend wholly upon
their own resources. When the winter is reasonably mild, and the snows
never very deep, nor lying too long at a time on the ground, the cattle
live through the winter with very satisfactory success. Thanks to the
wind, it usually happens that the falling snow is blown off the ridges
as fast as it falls, leaving the grass sufficiently uncovered for the
cattle to feed upon it. If the snow-fall is universal, but not more than
a few inches in depth, the cattle paw through it here and there, and eke
out a subsistence, on quarter rations it may be, until a friendly
chinook wind sets in from the southwest and dissolves the snow as if by
magic in a few hours' time.
But when a deep snow comes, and lies on the ground persistently, week in
and week out, when the warmth of the sun softens and moistens its
surface sufficiently for a returning cold wave to freeze it into a hard
crust, forming a universal wall of ice between the luckless steer and
his only food, the cattle starve and freeze in immense numbers. Being
totally unfitted by nature to survive such unnatural conditions, it is
not strange that they succumb.
Under present conditions the stockman simply stakes his cattle against
the winter elements and takes his chances on the results, which are
governed by circumstances wholly beyond his control. The losses of the
fearful winter of 1886-'87 will probably never be forgotten by the
cattlemen of the great Western grazing ground. In many portions of
Montana and Wyoming the cattlemen admitted a loss of 50 per cent of
their cattle, and in some localities the loss was still greater. The
same conditions are liable to prevail next winter, or any succeeding
winter, and we may yet see more than half the range cattle in the West
perish in a single month.
Yet all this time the cattlemen have had it in their power, by the
easiest and simplest method in the world, to introduce a strain of hardy
native blood in their stock which would have made it capable of
successfully resisting a much greater degree of hunger and cold. It is
really surprising that the desirability of cross-breeding the buffalo
and domestic cattle should for so long a time have been either
overlooked or disregarded. While cattle-growers generally have shown the
greatest enterprise in producing special breeds for milk, for butter, or
for beef, cattle with short horns and cattle with no horns at all, only
two or three men have had the enterprise to try to produce a breed
particularly hardy and capable.
A buffalo can weather storms and outlive hunger and cold which would
kill any domestic steer that ever lived. When nature placed him on the
treeless and blizzard-swept plains, she left him well equipped to
survive whatever natural conditions he would have to encounter. The most
striking feature of his entire _tout ensemble_ is his magnificent suit
of hair and fur combined, the warmest covering possessed by any
quadruped save the musk-ox. The head, neck, and fore quarters are
clothed with hide and hair so thick as to be almost, if not entirely,
impervious to cold. The hair on the body and hind quarters is long,
fine, very thick, and of that peculiar woolly quality which constitutes
the best possible protection against cold. Let him who doubts the warmth
of a good buffalo robe try to weather a blizzard with something else,
and then try the robe. The very form of the buffalo--short, thick legs,
and head hung very near the ground--suggests most forcibly a special
fitness to wrestle with mother earth for a living, snow or no snow. A
buffalo will flounder for days through deep snow-drifts without a morsel
of food, and survive where the best range steer would literally freeze
on foot, bolt upright, as hundreds did in the winter of 1886-'87. While
range cattle turn tail to a blizzard and drift helplessly, the buffalo
faces it every time, and remains master of the situation.
It has for years been a surprise to me that Western stockmen have not
seized upon the opportunity presented by the presence of the buffalo to
improve the character of their cattle. Now that there are no longer any
buffalo calves to be had on the plains for the trouble of catching them,
and the few domesticated buffaloes that remain are worth fabulous
prices, we may expect to see a great deal of interest manifested in this
subject, and some costly efforts made to atone for previous lack of
forethought.
_The character of the buffalo-domestic hybrid._--The subjoined
illustration from a photograph kindly furnished by Mr. C. J. Jones,
represents a ten months' old half-breed calf (male), the product of a
buffalo bull and domestic cow. The prepotency of the sire is apparent at
the first glance, and to so marked an extent that the illustration would
pass muster anywhere as having been drawn from a full-blood buffalo. The
head, neck, and hump, and the long woolly hair that covers them,
proclaim the buffalo in every line. Excepting that the hair on the
shoulders (below the hump) is of the same length as that on the body and
hind quarters, there is, so far as one can judge from an excellent
photograph, no difference whatever observable between this lusty young
half-breed and a full blood buffalo calf of the same age and sex. Mr.
Jones describes the color of this animal as "iron-gray," and remarks:
"You will see how even the fur is, being as long on the hind parts as on
the shoulders and neck, very much unlike the buffalo, which is so shaggy
about the shoulders and so thin farther back." Upon this point it is to
be remarked that the hair on the body of a yearling or two year-old
buffalo is always very much longer in proportion to the hair on the
forward parts than it is later in life, and while the shoulder hair is
always decidedly longer than that back of it, during the first two years
the contrast is by no means so very great. A reference to the memoranda
of hair measurements already given will afford precise data on this
point.
In regard to half-breed calves, Mr. Bedson states in a private letter
that "the hump does not appear until several months after birth."
Altogether, the male calf described above so strongly resembles a
pure-blood buffalo as to be generally mistaken for one; the form of the
adult half-blood cow promptly proclaims her origin. The accompanying
plate, also from a photograph supplied by Mr. Jones, accurately
represents a half-breed cow, six years old, weighing about 1,800 pounds.
Her body is very noticeably larger in proportion than that of the cow
buffalo, her pelvis much heavier, broader, and more cow-like, therein
being a decided improvement upon the small and weak hind quarters of the
wild species. The hump is quite noticeable, but is not nearly so high as
in the pure buffalo cow. The hair on the fore quarters, neck, and head
is decidedly shorter, especially on the head; the frontlet and chin
beard being conspicuously lacking. The tufts of long, coarse, black hair
which clothe the fore-arm of the buffalo cow are almost absent, but
apparently the hair on the body and hind quarters has lost but little,
if any, of its length, density, and fine, furry quality. The horns are
decidedly cow-like in their size, length, and curvature.
[Illustration: HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) CALF.--HERD OF C. J. JONES,
GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]
Regarding the general character of the half-breed buffalo, and his herd
in general, Mr. Bedson writes me as follows, in a letter dated September
12, 1888:
"The nucleus of my herd consisted of a young buffalo bull and four
heifer calves, which I purchased in 1877, and the increase from these
few has been most rapid, as will be shown by a tabular statement farther
on.
"Success with the breeding of the pure buffalo was followed by
experiments in crossing with the domestic animal. This crossing has
generally been between a buffalo bull and an ordinary cow, and with the
most encouraging results, since it had been contended by many that
although the cow might breed a calf from the buffalo, yet it would be at
the expense of her life, owing to the hump on a buffalo's shoulder; but
this hump does not appear until several months after birth. This has
been proved a fallacy respecting _this herd_ at least, for calving has
been attended with no greater percentage of losses than would be
experienced in ranching with the ordinary cattle. Buffalo cows and
crosses have dropped calves at as low a temperature as 20° below zero,
and the calves were sturdy and healthy.
"The half breed resulting from the cross as above mentioned has been
again crossed with the thoroughbred buffalo bull, producing a three
quarter breed animal closely resembling the buffalo, the head and robe
being quite equal, if not superior. The half-breeds are very prolific.
The cows drop a calf annually. They are also very hardy indeed, as they
take the instinct of the buffalo during the blizzards and storms, and do
not drift like native cattle. They remain upon the open prairie during
our severest winters, while the thermometer ranges from 30 to 40 degrees
below zero, with little or no food except what they rustled on the
prairie, and no shelter at all. In nearly all the ranching parts of
North America foddering and housing of cattle is imperative in a more or
less degree,[50] creating an item of expense felt by all interested in
cattle-raising; but the buffalo [half]breed retains all its native
hardihood, needs no housing, forages in the deepest snows for its own
food, yet becomes easily domesticated, and consequently needs but little
herding. Therefore the progeny of the buffalo is easily reared, cheaply
fed, and requires no housing in winter; three very essential points in
stock-raising.
[Note 50: On nearly all the great cattle ranches of the United States
it is absolutely impossible, and is not even attempted.--W. T. H.]
"They are always in good order, and I consider the meat of the
half-breed much preferable to domestic animals, while the robe is very
fine indeed, the fur being evened up on the hind parts, the same as on
the shoulders. During the history of the herd, accident and other causes
have compelled the slaughtering of one or two, and in these instances
the carcasses have sold for 18 cents per pound; the hides in their
dressed state for $50 to $75 each. A half-breed buffalo ox (four years
old, crossed with buffalo bull and Durham cow) was killed last winter,
and weighed 1,280 pounds dressed beef. One pure buffalo bull now in my
herd weighs fully 2,000 pounds, and a [half]breed bull 1,700 to 1,800
pounds.
"The three-quarter breed is an enormous animal in size, and has an extra
good robe, which will readily bring $40 to $50 in any market where there
is a demand for robes. They are also very prolific, and I consider them
the coming cattle for our range cattle for the Northern climate, while
the half and quarter breeds will be the animals for the more Southern
district. The half and three-quarter breed cows, when really matured,
will weigh from 1,400 to 1,800 pounds.
"I have never crossed them except with a common grade of cows, while I
believe a cross with the Galloways would produce the handsomest robe
ever handled, and make the best range cattle in the world. I have not
had time to give my attention to my herd, more than to let them range on
the prairies at will. By proper care great results can be accomplished."
Hon. C. J. Jones, of Garden City, Kans., whose years of experience with
the buffalo, both as old-time hunter, catcher, and breeder, has earned
for him the sobriquet of "Buffalo Jones," five years ago became deeply
interested in the question of improving range cattle by crossing with
the buffalo. With characteristic Western energy he has pursued the
subject from that time until the present, having made five trips to the
range of the only buffaloes remaining from the great southern herd, and
captured sixty-eight buffalo calves and eleven adult cows with which to
start a herd. In a short article published in the Farmers' Review
(Chicago, August 22, 1888), Mr. Jones gives his views on the value of
the buffalo in cross-breeding as follows:
"In all my meanderings I have not found a place but I could count more
carcasses [of cattle] than living animals. Who has not ridden over some
of the Western railways and counted dead cattle by the thousands? The
great question is, Where can we get a race of cattle that will stand
blizzards, and endure the drifting snow, and will not be driven with the
storms against the railroad fences and pasture fences, there to perish
for the want of nerve to face the northern winds for a few miles, to
where the winter grasses could be had in abundance? Realizing these
facts, both from observation and pocket, we pulled on our 'thinking
cap,' and these points came vividly to our mind:
"(1) We want an animal that is hardy.
"(2) We want an animal with nerve and endurance.
"(3) We want an animal that faces the blizzards and endures the storms.
"(4) We want an animal that will rustle the prairies, and not yield to
discouragement.
"(5) We want an animal that will fill the above bill, and make good
beef and plenty of it.
[Illustration: HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) COW.--HERD OF C. J. JONES,
GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]
"All the points above could easily be found in the buffalo, excepting
the fifth, and even that is more than filled as to the quality, but not
in quantity. Where is the 'old timer' who has not had a cut from the
hump or sirloin of a fat buffalo cow in the fall of the year, and where
is the one who will not make affidavit that it was the best meat he ever
ate? Yes, the fat was very rich, equal to the marrow from the bone of
domestic cattle. * * *
"The great question remained unsolved as to the quantity of meat from
the buffalo. I finally heard of a half-breed buffalo in Colorado, and
immediately set out to find it. I traveled at least 1,000 miles to find
it, and found a five-year-old half-breed cow that had been bred to
domestic bulls and had brought forth two calves--a yearling and a
sucking calf that gave promise of great results.
"The cow had never been fed, but depended altogether on the range, and
when I saw her, in the fall of 1883. I estimated her weight at 1,800
pounds. She was a brindle, and had a handsome robe even in September;
she had as good hind quarters as ordinary cattle; her foreparts were
heavy and resembled the buffalo, yet not near so much of the hump. The
offspring showed but very little of the buffalo, yet they possessed a
woolly coat, which showed clearly that they were more than domestic
cattle. * * *
"What we can rely on by having one-fourth, one-half, and three-fourths
breeds might be analyzed as follows:
"We can depend upon a race of cattle unequaled in the world for
hardiness and durability; a good meat-bearing animal; the best and only
fur-bearing animal of the bovine race; the animal always found in a
storm where it is overtaken by it; a race of cattle so clannish as never
to separate and go astray; the animal that can always have free range,
as they exist where no other animal can live; the animal that can water
every third day and keep fat, ranging from 20 to 30 miles from water; in
fact, they are the perfect animal for the plains of North America.
One-fourth breeds for Texas, one-half breeds for Colorado and Kansas,
and three-fourths breeds for more northern country, is what will soon be
sought after more than any living animal. Then we will never be
confronted with dead carcarsses from starvation, exhaustion, and lack of
nerve, as in years gone by."
_The bison as a beast of burden._--On account of the abundance of horses
for all purposes throughout the entire country, oxen are so seldom used
they almost constitute a curiosity. There never has existed a necessity
to break buffaloes to the yoke and work them like domestic oxen, and so
few experiments have been made in this direction that reliable data on
this subject is almost wholly wanting. While at Miles City, Mont., I
heard of a German "granger" who worked a small farm in the Tongue River
Valley, and who once had a pair of cow buffaloes trained to the yoke.
It was said that they were strong, rapid walkers, and capable of
performing as much work as the best domestic oxen, but they were at
times so uncontrollably headstrong and obstinate as to greatly detract
from their usefulness. The particular event of their career on which
their historian dwelt with special interest occurred when their owner
was hauling a load of potatoes to town with them. In the course of the
long drive the buffaloes grew very thirsty, and upon coming within sight
of the water in the river they started for it in a straight course. The
shouts and blows of the driver only served to hasten their speed, and
presently, when they reached the edge of the high bank, they plunged
down it without the slightest hesitation, wagon, potatoes, and all, to
the loss of everything except themselves and the drink they went after!
Mr. Robert Wickliffe states that trained buffaloes make satisfactory
oxen. "I have broken them to the yoke, and found them capable of making
excellent oxen; and for drawing wagons, carts, or other heavily laden
vehicles on long journeys they would, I think, be greatly preferable to
the common ox."
It seems probable that, in the absence of horses, the buffalo would make
a much more speedy and enduring draught animal than the domestic ox,
although it is to be doubted whether he would be as strong. His weaker
pelvis and hind quarters would surely count against him under certain
circumstances, but for some purposes his superior speed and endurance
would more than counterbalance that defect.
BISON HERDS AND INDIVIDUALS IN CAPTIVITY AND DOMESTICATION, JANUARY 1,
1889.
_Herd of Mr. S. L. Bedson, Stony Mountain, Manitoba._--In 1877 Mr.
Bedson purchased 5 buffalo calves, 1 bull, and 4 heifers, for which he
paid $1,000. In 1888 his herd consisted of 23 full-blood bulls, 35 cows,
3 half-breed cows, 5 half-breed bulls, and 17 calves, mixed and
pure;[51] making a total of 83 head. These were all produced from the
original 5, no purchases having been made, nor any additions made in any
other way. Besides the 83 head constituting the herd when it was sold, 5
were killed and 9 given away, which would otherwise make a total of 97
head produced since 1877. In November, 1888, this entire herd was
purchased, for $50,000, by Mr. C. J. Jones, and added to the already
large herd owned by that gentleman in Kansas.
[Note 51: In summing up the total number of buffaloes and mixed-breeds
now alive in captivity, I have been obliged to strike an average on this
lot of calves "mixed and pure," and have counted twelve as being of pure
breed and five mixed, which I have reason to believe is very near the
truth.]
[Illustration: YOUNG HALF-BREED (BUFFALO-DOMESTIC) BULL.--HERD OF C. J.
JONES, GARDEN CITY, KANSAS. Drawn by Ernest E. Thompson.]
_Herd of Mr. C. J. Jones, Garden City, Kans._--Mr. Jones's original herd
of 57 buffaloes constitute a living testimonial to his individual
enterprise, and to his courage, endurance, and skill in the chase. The
majority of the individuals composing the herd he himself ran down,
lassoed, and tied with his own hands. For the last five years Mr. Jones
has made an annual trip, in June, to the uninhabited "panhandle" of
Texas, to capture calves out of the small herd of from one hundred to
two hundred head which represented the last remnant of the great
southern herd. Each of these expeditious involved a very considerable
outlay in money, an elaborate "outfit" of men, horses, vehicles, camp
equipage, and lastly, but most important of all, a herd of a dozen fresh
milch cows to nourish the captured calves and keep them from dying of
starvation and thirst. The region visited was fearfully barren, almost
without water, and to penetrate it was always attended by great
hardship. The buffaloes were difficult to find, but the ground was good
for running, being chiefly level plains, and the superior speed of the
running horses always enabled the hunters to overtake a herd whenever
one was sighted, and to "cut out" and lasso two, three, or four of its
calves. The degree of skill and daring displayed in these several
expeditions are worthy of the highest admiration, and completely surpass
anything I have ever seen or read of being accomplished in connection
with hunting, or the capture of live game. The latest feat of Mr. Jones
and his party comes the nearest to being incredible. During the month of
May, 1888, they not only captured seven calves, but also _eleven adult
cows_, of which some were lassoed in full career on the prairie, thrown,
tied, and hobbled! The majority, however, were actually "rounded up,"
herded, and held in control until a bunch of tame buffaloes was driven
down to meet them, so that it would thus be possible to drive all
together to a ranch. This brilliant feat can only be appreciated as it
deserves by those who have lately hunted buffalo, and learned by dear
experience the extent of their wariness, and the difficulties, to say
nothing of the dangers, inseparably connected with their pursuit.
The result of each of Mr. Jones's five expeditions is as follows: In
1884 no calves found; 1885, 11 calves captured, 5 died, 6 survived;
1886, 14 calves captured, 7 died, 7 survived; 1887, 36 calves captured,
6 died, 30 survived; 1888, 7 calves captured, all survived; 1888, 11 old
cows captured, all survived. Total, 79 captures, 18 losses, 57
survivors.
The census of the herd is exactly as follows: Adult cows, 11; three-year
olds, 7, of which 2 are males and 5 females; two-year olds, 4, of which
all are males; yearling, 28, of which 15 are males and 13 females;
calves, 7, of which 3 are males and 4 females. Total herd, 57; 24 males
and 33 females. To this, Mr. Jones's original herd, must now be added
the entire herd formerly owned by Mr. Bedson.
Respecting his breeding operations Mr. Jones writes: "My oldest [bull]
buffaloes are now three years old, and I am breeding one hundred
domestic cows to them this year. Am breeding the Galloway cows quite
extensively; also some Shorthorns, Herefords, and Texas cows. I expect
best results from the Galloways. If I can get the black luster of the
latter and the fur of a buffalo, I will have a robe that will bring more
money than we get for the average range steer."
In November, 1888, Mr. Jones purchased Mr. Bedson's entire herd, and in
the following mouth proceeded to ship a portion of it to Kansas City.
Thirty-three head were separated from the remainder of the herd on the
prairie near Stony Mountain, 12 miles from Winnipeg, and driven to the
railroad. Several old bulls broke away en route and ran back to the
herd, and when the remainder were finally corraled in the pens at the
stock-yards "they began to fight among themselves, and some fierce
encounters were waged between the old bulls. The younger cattle were
raised on the horns of their seniors, thrown in the air, and otherwise
gored." While on the way to St. Paul three of the half-breed buffaloes
were killed by their companions. On reaching Kansas City and unloading
the two cars, 13 head broke away from the large force of men that
attempted to manage them, stampeded through the city, and finally took
refuge in the low-lands along the river. In due time, however, all were
recaptured.
Since the acquisition of this northern herd and the subsequent press
comment that it has evoked, Mr. Jones has been almost overwhelmed with
letters of inquiry in regard to the whole subject of buffalo breeding,
and has found it necessary to print and distribute a circular giving
answers to the many inquiries that have been made.
_Herd of Mr. Charles Allard, Flathead Indian Reservation,
Montana._--This herd was visited in the autumn of 1888 by Mr. G. O.
Shields, of Chicago, who reports that it consists of thirty-five head of
pure-blood buffaloes, of which seven are calves of 1888, six are
yearlings, and six are two-year olds. Of the adult animals, four cows
and two bulls are each fourteen years old, "and the beards of the bulls
almost sweep the ground as they walk."
_Herd of Hon. W. F. Cody ("Buffalo Bill")._--The celebrated "Wild West
Show" has, ever since its organization, numbered amongst its leading
attractions a herd of live buffaloes of all ages. At present this herd
contains eighteen head, of which fourteen were originally purchased of
Mr. H. T. Groome, of Wichita, Kansas, and have made a journey to London
and back. As a proof of the indomitable persistence of the bison in
breeding under most unfavorable circumstances, the fact that four of the
members of this herd are calves which were born in 1888 in London, at
the American Exposition, is of considerable interest.
This herd is now (December, 1888) being wintered on General Beale's
farm, near the city of Washington. In 1886-'87, while the Wild West Show
was at Madison Square Garden, New York City, its entire herd of twenty
buffaloes was carried off by pleuro-pneumonia. It is to be greatly
feared that sooner or later in the course of its travels the present
herd will also disappear, either through disease or accident.
_Herd of Mr. Charles Goodnight, Clarendon, Texas._--Mr. Goodnight writes
that he has "been breeding buffaloes in a small way for the past ten
years," but without giving any particular attention to it. At present
his herd consists of thirteen head, of which two are three-year old
bulls and four are calves. There are seven cows of all ages, one of
which is a half-breed.
_Herd at the Zoological Society's Gardens, Philadelphia, Arthur E.
Brown, superintendent._--This institution is the fortunate possessor of
a small herd of ten buffaloes, of which four are males and six females.
Two are calves of 1877. In 1886 the Gardens sold an adult bull and cow
to Hon. W. F. Cody for $300.
_Herd at Bismarck Grove, Kansas, owned by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa
Fé Railroad Company._--A small herd of buffaloes has for several years
past been kept at Bismarck Grove as an attraction to visitors. At
present it contains ten head, one of which is a very large bull, another
in a four-year-old bull, six are cows of various ages, and two are
two-year olds. In 1885 a large bull belonging to this herd grew so
vicious and dangerous that it was necessary to kill him.
The following interesting account of this herd was published in the
Kansas City Times of December 8, 1888:
"Thirteen years ago Colonel Stanton purchased a buffalo bull calf for $8
and two heifers for $25. The descendants of these three buffaloes now
found at Bismarck Grove, where all were born, number in all ten. There
were seventeen, but the rest have died, with the exception of one, which
was given away. They are kept in an inclosure containing about 30 acres
immediately adjoining the park, and there may be seen at any time. The
sight is one well worth a trip and the slight expense that may attach to
it, especially to one who has never seen the American bison in his
native state.
"The present herd includes two fine bull calves dropped last spring, two
heifers, five cows, and a bull six years old and as handsome as a
picture. The latter has been named Cleveland, after the colonel's
favorite Presidential candidate. The entire herd is in as fine condition
as any beef cattle, though they were never fed anything but hay and are
never given any shelter. In fact they don't take kindly to shelter, and
whether a blizzard is blowing, with the mercury 20 degrees below zero,
or the sun pouring down his scorching rays, with the thermometer 110
degrees above, they set their heads resolutely toward storm or sun and
take their medicine as if they liked it. Hon. W. F. Cody, "Buffalo
Bill," tried to buy the whole herd two years ago to take to Europe with
his Wild West Show, but they were not for sale at his own figures, and,
indeed, there is no anxiety to dispose of them at any figures. The
railroad company has been glad to furnish them pasturage for the sake of
adding to the attractions of the park, in which there are also
forty-three head of deer, including two as fine bucks as ever trotted
over the national deer trail toward the salt-licks in northern Utah.
"While the bison at Bismark Grove are splendid specimens of their class,
"Cleveland" is decidedly the pride of the herd, and as grand a creature
as ever trod the soil of Kansas on four legs. He is just six years old
and is a perfect specimen of the kings of the plains. There is royal
blood in his veins, and his coat is finer than the imperial purple. It
is not possible to get at him to measure his stature and weight. He must
weigh fully 3,000 pounds, and it is doubtful if there is to-day living
on the face of the earth a handsomer buffalo bull than he. "Cleveland's"
disposition is not so ugly as old Barney's was, but at certain seasons
he is very wild, and there is no one venturesome enough to go into the
inclosure. It is then not altogether safe to even look over the high and
heavy board fence at him, for he is likely to make a run for the
visitor, as the numerous holes in the fence where he has knocked off the
boards will testify."
_Herd of Mr. Frederick Dupree, Cheyenne Indian Agency, near Fort
Bennett, Dakota._--This herd contains at present nine pure-blood
buffaloes, five of which are cows and seven mixed bloods. Of the former,
there are two adult bulls and four adult cows. Of the mixed blood
animals, six are half-breeds and one a quarter-breed buffalo.
Mr. Dupree obtained the nucleus of his herd in 1882, at which time he
captured five wild calves about 100 miles west of Fort Bennett. Of
these, two died after two months of captivity and a third was killed by
an Indian in 1885.
Mr. D. F. Carlin, of the Indian service, at Fort Bennett, has kindly
furnished me the following information respecting this herd, under date
of November 1, 1888:
"The animals composing this herd are all in fine condition and are quite
tame. They keep by themselves most of the time, except the oldest bull
(six years old), who seems to appreciate the company of domestic cattle
more than that of his own family. Mr. Dupree has kept one half-breed
bull as an experiment; he thinks it will produce a hardy class of
cattle. His half-breeds are all black, with one exception, and that is a
roan; but they are all built like the buffalo, and when young they grunt
more like a hog than like a calf, the same as a full-blood buffalo.
"Mr. Dupree has never lost a [domestic] cow in giving birth to a
half-breed calf, as was supposed by many people would be the case. There
have been no sales from this herd, although the owner has a standing
offer of $650 for a cow and bull. The cows are not for sale at any
price."
_Herd at Lincoln Park, Chicago, Mr. W. P. Walker, superintendent._--This
very interesting and handsomely-kept herd is composed of seven
individuals of the following character: One bull eight years old, one
bull four years old, two cows eight years old, two cows two years old in
the spring of 1888, and one female calf born in the spring of 1888.
_Zoological Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio._--This collection contains four
bison, an adult bull and cow, and one immature specimen.
_Dr. V. T. McGillicuddy, Rapid City, Dakota_, has a herd of four pure
buffaloes and one half-breed. Of the former, the two adults, a bull and
cow seven years old, were caught by Sioux Indians near the Black Hills
for the owner in the spring of 1882. The Indians drove two milch cows to
the range to nourish the calves when caught. These have produced two
calves, one of which, a bull, is now three years old, and the other is a
yearling heifer.
_Central Park Menagerie, New York, Dr. W. A. Conklin, director._--This
much-visited collection contains four bison, an adult bull and cow, a
two-year-old calf, and a yearling.
_Mr. John H. Starin, Glen Inland, near New York City._--There are four
buffaloes at this summer resort.
_The U. S. National Museum, Washington, District of Columbia._--The
collection of the department of living animals at this institution
contains two fine young buffaloes; a bull four years old in July, 1888,
and a cow three years old in May of the same year. These animals were
captured in western Nebraska, when they were calves, by H. R. Jackett,
of Ogalalla, and kept by him on his ranch until 1885. In April, 1888,
Hon. Eugene G. Blackford, of New York, purchased them of Mr. Frederick
D. Nowell, of North Platte, Nebraska, for $100 for the pair, and
presented them to the National Museum, in the hope that they might form
the nucleus of a herd to be owned and exhibited by the United States
Government in or near the city of Washington. The two animals were
received in Ogalalla by Mr. Joseph Palmer, of the National Museum, and
by him they were brought on to Washington in May, in fine condition.
Since their arrival they have been exhibited to the public in a
temporary inclosure on the Smithsonian Grounds, and have attracted much
attention.
_Mr. B. C. Winston, of Hamline, Minnesota_, owns a pair of buffaloes,
one of which, a young bull, was caught by him in western Dakota in the
spring of 1886, soon after its birth. The cow was purchased at Rosseau,
Dakota Territory, a year later, for $225.
_Mr. I. P. Butler, of Colorado, Texas_, is the owner of a young bull
buffalo and a half-breed calf.
_Mr. Jesse Huston, of Miles City, Montana_, owns a fine five-year-old
bull buffalo.
_Mr. L. F. Gardner, of Bellwood, Oregon_, is the owner of a large adult
bull.
_The Riverside Ranch Company, south of Mandan, Dakota_, owns a pair of
full-blood buffaloes.
_In Dakota_, in the hands of parties unknown, there are four full-blood
buffaloes.
_Mr. James R. Hitch, of Optima, Indian Territory_, has a pair of young
buffaloes, which he has offered for sale for $750.
_Mr. Joseph A. Hudson, of Estell, Nebraska_, owns a three-year-old bull
buffalo, which is for sale.
In other countries there are live specimens of _Bison americanus_
reported as follows: two at Belleview Gardens, Manchester, England; one
at the Zoological Gardens, London; one at Liverpool, England (purchased
of Hon. W. F. Cody in 1888); two at the Zoological Gardens, Dresden; one
at the Zoological Gardens, Calcutta.
+--------------------------------------------------+
| _Statistics of full-blood buffaloes | |
| in captivity January 1, 1889._ | |
+---------------------------------------------+----+
|Number kept for breeding purposes | 216|
|Number kept for exhibition | 40|
| | ---|
| Total pure-blood buffaloes in captivity | 256|
|Wild buffaloes under Government | |
|protection in the Yellowstone Park | 200|
|Number of mixed-breed buffalo-domestics | 40|
+--------------------------------------------------+
There are, without doubt, a few half-breeds in Manitoba of which I have
no account. It is probable there are also a very few more captive
buffaloes scattered singly here and there which will be heard of later,
but the total will be a very small number, I am sure.