A great deal has been said about the sla_The Extermination of the American Bison

sportsmen, particularly Englishmen; but I must say that, from all that

can be ascertained on this point, this element of destruction has been

greatly exaggerated and overestimated. It is true that every English

sportsman who visited this country in the days of the buffalo always

resolved to have, and did have, "a buffalo hunt," and usually under the

auspices of United States Army officers. Undoubtedly these parties did

kill hundreds of buffaloes, but it is very doubtful whether the

aggregate of the number slain by foreign sportsmen would run up higher

than ten thousand. Indeed, for myself, I am well convinced that there

are many old ex-still-hunters yet living, each of whom is accountable

for a greater number of victims than all buffaloes killed by foreign

sportsmen would make added together. The professional butchers were very

much given to crying out against "them English lords," and holding up

their hands in holy horror at buffaloes killed by them for their heads,

instead of for hides to sell at a dollar apiece; but it is due the

American public to say that all this outcry was received at its true

value and deceived very few. By those in possession of the facts it was

recognized as "a blind," to divert public opinion from the real

culprits.

Nevertheless it is very true that many men who were properly classed as

sportsmen, in contradistinction from the pot-hunters, did engage in

useless and inexcusable slaughter to an extent that was highly

reprehensible, to say the least. A sportsman is not supposed to kill

game wantonly, when it can be of no possible use to himself or any one

else, but a great many do it for all that. Indeed, the sportsman who

kills sparingly and conscientiously is rather the exception than the

rule. Colonel Dodge thus refers to the work of some foreign sportsmen:

"In the fall of that year [1872] three English gentlemen went out with

me for a short hunt, and in their excitement bagged more buffalo than

would have supplied a brigade." As a general thing, however, the

professional sportsmen who went out to have a buffalo hunt for the

excitement of the chase and the trophies it yielded, nearly always found

the bison so easy a victim, and one whose capture brought so little

glory to the hunter, that the chase was voted very disappointing, and

soon abandoned in favor of nobler game. In those days there was no more

to boast of in killing a buffalo than in the assassination of a Texas

steer.

It was, then, the hide-hunters, white and red, but especially white, who

wiped out the great southern herd in four short years. The prices

received for hides varied considerably, according to circumstances, but

for the green or undressed article it usually ranged from 50 cents for

the skins of calves to $1.25 for those of adult animals in good

condition. Such prices seem ridiculously small, but when it is

remembered that, when buffaloes were plentiful it was no uncommon thing

for a hunter to kill from forty to sixty head in a day, it will readily

be seen that the _chances_ of making very handsome profits were

sufficient to tempt hunters to make extraordinary exertions. Moreover,

even when the buffaloes were nearly gone, the country was overrun with

men who had absolutely nothing else to look to as a means of livelihood,

and so, no matter whether the profits were great or small, so long as

enough buffaloes remained to make it possible to get a living by their

pursuit, they were hunted down with the most determined persistency and

pertinacity.

6. _Statistics of the slaughter._--The most careful and reliable

estimate ever made of results of the slaughter of the southern buffalo

herd is that of Col. Richard Irving Dodge, and it is the only one I know

of which furnishes a good index of the former size of that herd.

Inasmuch as this calculation was based on actual statistics,

supplemented by personal observations and inquiries made in that region

during the great slaughter, I can do no better than to quote Colonel

Dodge almost in full.[66]

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

The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad furnished the following

statistics of the buffalo product carried by it during the years 1872,

1873, and 1874:

+----------------------------------------------------+

| _Buffalo product._ |

+----------------------------------------------------+

+----------------------------------------------------+

|1872 | 165,721 | ... | 1,135,300 |

|1873 | 251,443 | 1,617,600 | 2,743,100 |

|1874 | 42,289 | 632,800 | 6,914,950 |

+------|--------------|---------------|--------------+

|Total | 459,453 | 2,250,400 | 10,793,350 |

+----------------------------------------------------+

The officials of the Kansas Pacific and Union Pacific railroads either

could not or would not furnish any statistics of the amount of the

buffalo product carried by their lines during this period, and it became

necessary to proceed without the actual figures in both cases. Inasmuch

as the Kansas Pacific road cuts through a portion of the buffalo country

which was in every respect as thickly inhabited by those animals as the

region traversed by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé, it seemed

absolutely certain that the former road hauled out fully as many hides

as the latter, if not more, and its quota is so set down. The Union

Pacific line handled a much smaller number of buffalo hides than either

of its southern rivals, but Colonel Dodge believes that this, "with the

smaller roads which touch the buffalo region, taken together, carried

about as much as either of the two principal buffalo roads."

Colonel Dodge considers it reasonably certain that the statistics

furnished by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé road represent only

one-third of the entire buffalo product, and there certainly appears to

be good ground for this belief. It is therefore in order to base further

calculations upon these figures.

According to evidence gathered on the spot by Colonel Dodge during the

period of the great slaughter, one hide sent to market in 1872

represented three dead buffaloes, in 1873 two, and in 1874 one hundred

skins delivered represented one hundred and twenty-five dead animals.

The total slaughter by white men was therefore about as below:

+---------------------------------------------------------------+

+-----+---------+-----------+-----------+----------+------------+

|1872 | 165,721 | 331,442 | 497,163 | 994,326| 1,491,489 |

|1873 | 251,443 | 502,886 | 754,329 | 754,329| 1,508,658 |

|1874 | 42,289 | 84,578 | 126,867 | 31,716| 158,583 |

|Total| 459,453 | 918,906 |1,378,359 | 1,780,481| 3,158,730 |

+---------------------------------------------------------------+

During all this time the Indians of all tribes within striking distance

of the herds killed an immense number of buffaloes every year. In the

summer they killed for the hairless hides to use for lodges and for

leather, and in the autumn they slaughtered for robes and meat, but

particularly robes, which were all they could offer the white trader in

exchange for his goods. They were too lazy and shiftless to cure much

buffalo meat, and besides it was not necessary, for the Government fed

them. In regard to the number of buffaloes of the southern herd killed

by the Indians, Colonel Dodge arrives at an estimate, as follows:

"It is much more difficult to estimate the number of dead buffalo

represented by the Indian-tanned skins or robes sent to market. This

number varies with the different tribes, and their greater or less

contact with the whites. Thus, the Cheyennes, Arapahoes, and Kiowas of

the southern plains, having less contact with whites, use skins for

their lodges, clothing, bedding, par-fléches, saddles, lariats, for

almost everything. The number of robes sent to market represent only

what we may call the foreign exchange of these tribes, and is really not

more than one-tenth of the skins taken. To be well within bounds I will

assume that one robe sent to market by these Indians represents six dead

buffaloes.

"Those bands of Sioux who live at the agencies, and whose peltries are

taken to market by the Union Pacific Railroad, live in lodges of cotton

cloth furnished by the Indian Bureau. They use much civilized clothing,

bedding, boxes, ropes, etc. For these luxuries they must pay in robes,

and as the buffalo range is far from wide, and their yearly 'crop'

small, more than half of it goes to market."

Leaving out of the account at this point all consideration of the

killing done north of the Union Pacific Railroad, Colonel Dodge's

figures are as follows:

_Southern buffaloes slaughtered by southern Indians._

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

| |Sent to |No. of dead |

| Indians. |market. |buffaloes |

| | |represented.|

+-----------------------------------------+----------+------------+

| | | |

|Kiowas, Comanches, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, | | |

|and other Indians whose robes go over the| | |

|Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fé Railroad | 19,000 | 114,000 |

|Sioux at agencies, Union Pacific Railroad| 10,000 | 16,000 |

| +----------+------------+

|Total slaughtered per annum | 29,000 | 130,000 |

|Total for the three years 1872-1874 | ... | 390,000 |

+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

Reference has already been made to the fact that during those years an

immense number of buffaloes were killed by the farmers of eastern Kansas

and Nebraska for their meat. Mr. William Mitchell, of Wabaunsee, Kansas,

stated to the writer that "in those days, when buffaloes were plentiful

in western Kansas, pretty much everybody made a trip West in the fall

and brought back a load of buffalo meat. Everybody had it in abundance

as long as buffaloes remained in any considerable number. Very few skins

were saved; in fact, hardly any, for the reason that nobody knew how to

tan them, and they always spoiled. At first a great many farmers tried

to dress the green hides that they brought back, but they could not

succeed, and finally gave up trying. Of course, a great deal of the meat

killed was wasted, for only the best parts were brought back."

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

reference:

"In 1871 and 1872 the buffalo ranged within 10 miles of Wichita, and

could be counted by the thousands. The town, then in its infancy, was

the headquarters for a vast number of buffalo-hunters, who plied their

occupation vigorously during the winter. The buffalo were killed

principally for their hides, and daily wagon trains arrived in town

loaded with them. Meat was very cheap in those days; fine, tender

buffalo steak selling from 1 to 2 cents per pound. * * * The business

was quite profitable for a time, but a sudden drop in the price of hides

brought them down as low as 25 and 50 cents each. * * * It was a very

common thing in those days for people living in Wichita to start out in

the morning and return by evening with a wagon load of buffalo meat."

Unquestionably a great many thousand buffaloes were killed annually by

the settlers of Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and

the mountain Indians living west of the great range. The number so slain

can only be guessed at, for there is absolutely no data on which to

found an estimate. Judging merely from the number of people within reach

of the range, it may safely be estimated that the total number of

buffaloes slaughtered annually to satisfy the wants of this

heterogeneous element could not have been less than fifty thousand, and

probably was a much higher number. This, for the three years, would make

one hundred and fifty thousand, and the grand total would therefore be

about as follows:

+------------------------------------------------------+

| _The slaughter of the southern herd._ |

+------------------------------------------------------+

|Killed by "professional" white hunters in | |

| 1872, 1873, and 1874 | 3,158,730 |

|Killed by Indians, same period | 390,000 |

|Killed by settlers and mountain Indians | 150,000 |

| | --------- |

| Total slaughter in three years | 3,098,730 |

+------------------------------------------------------+

These figures seem incredible, but unfortunately there is not the

slightest reason for believing they are too high. There are many men now

living who declare that during the great slaughter they each killed from

twenty-five hundred to three thousand buffaloes every year. With

thousands of hunters on the range, and such possibilities of slaughter

before each, it is, after all, no wonder that an average of nearly a

million and a quarter of buffaloes fell each year during that bloody

period.

By the close of the hunting season of 1875 the great southern herd had

ceased to exist. As a body, it had been utterly annihilated. The main

body of the survivors, numbering about ten thousand head, fled

southwest, and dispersed through that great tract of wild, desolate, and

inhospitable country stretching southward from the Cimarron country

across the "Public Land Strip," the Pan-handle of Texas, and the Llano

Estacado, or Staked Plain, to the Pecos River. A few small bands of

stragglers maintained a precarious existence for a few years longer on

the headwaters of the Republican River and in southwestern Nebraska,

near Ogalalla, where calves were caught alive as late as 1885. Wild

buffaloes were seen in southwestern Kansas for the last time in 1886,

and the two or three score of individuals still living in the Canadian

River country of the Texas Pan-handle are the last wild survivors of the

great Southern herd.

The main body of the fugitives which survived the great slaughter of

1871-'74 continued to attract hunters who were very "hard up," who

pursued them, often at the risk of their own lives, even into the

terrible Llano Estacado. In Montana in 1886 I met on a cattle ranch an

ex-buffalo-hunter from Texas, named Harry Andrews, who from 1874 to 1876

continued in pursuit of the scattered remnants of the great southern

herd through the Pan-handle of Texas and on into the Staked Plain

itself. By that time the market had become completely overstocked with

robes, and the prices received by Andrews and other hunters was only 65

cents each for cow robes and $1.15 each for bull robes, delivered on the

range, the purchaser providing for their transportation to the railway.

But even at those prices, which were so low as to make buffalo killing

seem like downright murder, Mr. Andrews assured me that he "made big

money." On one occasion, when he "got a stand" on a large bunch of

buffalo, he fired one hundred and fifteen shots from one spot, and

killed sixty-three buffaloes in about an hour.

In 1880 buffalo hunting as a business ceased forever in the Southwest,

and so far as can be ascertained, but one successful hunt for robes has

been made in that region since that time. That occurred in the fall and

winter of 1887, about 100 miles north of Tascosa, Texas, when two

parties, one of which was under the leadership of Lee Howard, attacked

the only band of buffaloes left alive in the Southwest, and which at

that time numbered about two hundred head. The two parties killed

fifty-two buffaloes, of which ten skins were preserved entire for

mounting. Of the remaining forty-two, the heads were cut off and

preserved for mounting and the skins were prepared as robes. The

mountable skins were finally sold at the following prices: Young cows,

$50 to $60; adult cows, $75 to $100; adult bull, $150. The unmounted

heads sold as follows: Young bulls, $25 to $30; adult bulls, $50; young

cows, $10 to $12; adult cows, $15 to $25. A few of the choicest robes

sold at $20 each, and the remainder, a lot of twenty eight, of prime

quality and in excellent condition, were purchased by the Hudson's Bay

Fur Company for $350.

Such was the end of the great southern herd. In 1871 it contained

certainly no fewer than three million buffaloes, and by the beginning of

1875 its existence as a herd had utterly ceased, and nothing but

scattered, fugitive bands remained.

7. _The Destruction of the Northern Herd._--Until the building of the

Northern Pacific Railway there were but two noteworthy outlets for the

buffalo robes that were taken annually in the Northwestern Territories

of the United States. The principal one was the Missouri River, and the

Yellowstone River was the other. Down these streams the hides were

transported by steam-boats to the nearest railway shipping point. For

fifty years prior to the building of the Northern Pacific Railway in

1880-'82, the number of robes marketed every year by way of these

streams was estimated variously at from fifty to one hundred thousand.

A great number of hides taken in the British Possessions fell into the

hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, and found a market in Canada.

In May, 1881, the Sioux City (Iowa) _Journal_ contained the following

information in regard to the buffalo robe "crop" of the previous hunting

season--the winter of 1880-'81:

"It is estimated by competent authorities that one hundred thousand

buffalo hides will be shipped out of the Yellowstone country this

season. Two firms alone are negotiating for the transportation of

twenty-five thousand hides each. * * * Most of our citizens saw the big

load of buffalo hides that the _C. K. Peck_ brought down last season, a

load that hid everything about the boat below the roof of the hurricane

deck. There were ten thousand hides in that load, and they were all

brought out of the Yellowstone on one trip and transferred to the _C. K.

Peck_. How such a load could have been piled on the little _Terry_ not

even the men on the boat appear to know. It hid every part of the boat,

barring only the pilot-house and smoke-stacks. But such a load will not

be attempted again. For such boats as ply the Yellowstone there are at

least fifteen full loads of buffalo hides and other pelts. Reckoning one

thousand hides to three car loads, and adding to this fifty cars for the

other pelts, it will take at least three hundred and fifty box-cars to

carry this stupendous bulk of peltry East to market. These figures are

not guesses, but estimates made by men whose business it is to know

about the amount of hides and furs awaiting shipment.

"Nothing like it has ever been known in the history of the fur trade.

Last season the output of buffalo hides was above the average, and last

year only about thirty thousand hides came out of the Yellowstone

country, or less than a third of what is there now awaiting shipment The

past severe winter caused the buffalo to bunch themselves in a few

valleys where there was pasturage, and there the slaughter went on all

winter. There was no sport about it, simply shooting down the

famine-tamed animals as cattle might be shot down in a barn-yard. To the

credit of the Indians it can be said that they killed no more than they

could save the meat from. The greater part of the slaughter was done by

white hunters, or butchers rather, who followed the business of killing

and skinning buffalo by the mouth, leaving the carcasses to rot."

At the time of the great division made by the Union Pacific Railway the

northern body of buffalo extended from the valley of the Platte River

northward to the southern shore of Great Slave Lake, eastward almost to

Minnesota, and westward to an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Rocky

Mountains. The herds were most numerous along the central portion of

this region (see map), and from the Platte Valley to Great Slave Lake

the range was continuous. The buffalo population of the southern half of

this great range was, according to all accounts, nearly three times as

great as that of the northern half. At that time, or, let us say, 1870,

there were about four million buffaloes south of the Platte River, and

probably about one million and a half north of it. I am aware that the

estimate of the number of buffaloes in the great northern herd is

usually much higher than this, but I can see no good grounds for making

it so. To my mind, the evidence is conclusive that, although the

northern herd ranged over such an immense area, it was numerically less

than half the size of the overwhelming multitude which actually crowded

the southern range, and at times so completely consumed the herbage of

the plains that detachments of the United States Army found it difficult

to find sufficient grass for their mules and horses.[67]

[Note 67: As an instance of this, see _Forest and Stream_, vol. II,

p. 184: "Horace Jones, the interpreter here [Fort Sill], says that on

his first trip along the line of the one hundredth meridian, in 1859,

accompanying Major Thomas--since our noble old general--they passed

continuous herds for over 60 miles, which left so little grass behind

them that Major Thomas was seriously troubled about his horses."]

The various influences which ultimately led to the complete blotting out

of the great northern herd were exerted about as follows:

In the British Possessions, where the country was immense and game of

all kinds except buffalo very scarce indeed; where, in the language of

Professor Kenaston, the explorer, "there was a great deal of country

around every wild animal," the buffalo constituted the main dependence

of the Indians, who would not cultivate the soil at all, and of the

half-breeds, who would not so long as they could find buffalo. Under

such circumstances the buffaloes of the British Possessions were hunted

much more vigorously and persistently than those of the United States,

where there was such an abundant supply of deer, elk, antelope, and

other game for the Indians to feed upon, and a paternal government to

support them with annuities besides. Quite contrary to the prevailing

idea of the people of the United States, viz., that there were great

herds of buffaloes in existence in the Saskatchewan country long after

ours had all been destroyed, the herds of British America had been

almost totally exterminated by the time the final slaughter of our

northern herd was inaugurated by the opening of the Northern Pacific

Railway in 1880. The Canadian Pacific Railway played no part whatever in

the extermination of the bison in the British Possessions, for it had

already taken place. The half-breeds of Manitoba, the Plains Crees of

Qu'Appelle, and the Blackfeet of the South Saskatchewan country swept

bare a great belt of country stretching east and west between the Rocky

Mountains and Manitoba. The Canadian Pacific Railway found only

bleaching bones in the country through which it passed. The buffalo had

disappeared from that entire region before 1879 and left the Blackfeet

Indians on the verge of starvation. A few thousand buffaloes still

remained in the country around the headwaters of the Battle River,

between the North and South Saskatchewan, but they were surrounded and

attacked from all sides, and their numbers diminished very rapidly until

all were killed.

The latest information I have been able to obtain in regard to the

disappearance of this northern band has been kindly furnished by Prof.

C. A. Kenaston, who in 1881, and also in 1883, made a thorough

exploration of the country between Winnipeg and Fort Edmonton for the

Canadian Pacific Railway Company. His four routes between the two points

named covered a vast scope of country, several hundred miles in width.

In 1881, at Moose Jaw, 75 miles southeast of The Elbow of the South

Saskatchewan, he saw a party of Cree Indians, who had just arrived from

the northwest with several carts laden with fresh buffalo meat. At Fort

Saskatchewan, on the North Saskatchewan River, just above Edmonton, he

saw a party of English sportsmen who had recently been hunting on the

Battle and Red Deer Rivers, between Edmonton and Fort Kalgary, where

they had found buffaloes, and killed as many as they cared to slaughter.

In one afternoon they killed fourteen, and could have killed more had

they been more blood-thirsty. In 1883 Professor Kenaston found the fresh

trail of a band of twenty-five or thirty buffaloes at The Elbow of the

South Saskatchewan. Excepting in the above instances he saw no further

traces of buffalo, nor did he hear of the existence of any in all the

country he explored. In 1881 he saw many Cree Indians at Fort Qu'Appelle

in a starving condition, and there was no pemmican or buffalo meat at

the fort. In 1883, however, a little pemmican found its way to Winnipeg,

where it sold at 15 cents per pound; an exceedingly high price. It had

been made that year, evidently in the mouth of April, as he purchased it

in May for his journey.

The first really alarming impression made on our northern herd was by

the Sioux Indians, who very speedily exterminated that portion of it

which had previously covered the country lying between the North Platte

and a line drawn from the center of Wyoming to the center of Dakota. All

along the Missouri River from Bismarck to Fort Benton, and along the

Yellowstone to the head of navigation, the slaughter went bravely on.

All the Indian tribes of that vast region--Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows,

Blackfeet, Bloods, Piegans, Assinniboines, Gros Ventres, and

Shoshones--found their most profitable business and greatest pleasure

(next to scalping white settlers) in hunting the buffalo. It took from

eight to twelve buffalo hides to make a covering for one ordinary

teepee, and sometimes a single teepee of extra size required from twenty

to twenty-five hides.

The Indians of our northwestern Territories marketed about seventy-five

thousand buffalo robes every year so long as the northern herd was large

enough to afford the supply. If we allow that for every skin sold to

white traders four others were used in supplying their own wants, which

must be considered a very moderate estimate, the total number of

buffaloes slaughtered annually by those tribes must have been about

three hundred and seventy-five thousand.

The end which so many observers had for years been predicting really

began (with the northern herd) in 1876, two years after the great

annihilation which had taken place in the South, although it was not

until four years later that the slaughter became universal over the

entire range. It is very clearly indicated in the figures given in a

letter from Messrs. I. G. Baker & Co., of Fort Benton, Montana, to the

writer, dated October 6, 1887, which reads as follows:

"There were sent East from the year 1876 from this point about

seventy-five thousand buffalo robes. In 1880 it had fallen to about

twenty thousand, in 1883 not more than five thousand, and in 1884 none

whatever. We are sorry we can not give you a better record, but the

collection of hides which exterminated the buffalo was from the

Yellowstone country on the Northern Pacific, instead of northern

Montana."

The beginning of the final slaughter of our northern herd may be dated

about 1880, by which time the annual robe crop of the Indians had

diminished three-fourths, and when summer killing for hairless hides

began on a large scale. The range of this herd was surrounded on three

sides by tribes of Indians, armed with breech-loading rifles and

abundantly supplied with fixed ammunition. Up to the year 1880 the

Indians of the tribes previously mentioned killed probably three times

as many buffaloes as did the white hunters, and had there not been a

white hunter in the whole Northwest the buffalo would have been

exterminated there just as surely, though not so quickly by perhaps ten

years, as actually occurred. Along the north, from the Missouri River to

the British line, and from the reservation in northwestern Dakota to the

main divide of the Rocky Mountains, a distance of 550 miles as the crow

flies, the country was one continuous Indian reservation, inhabited by

eight tribes, who slaughtered buffalo in season and out of season, in

winter for robes and in summer for hides and meat to dry. In the

Southeast was the great body of Sioux, and on the Southwest the Crows

and Northern Cheyennes, all engaged in the same relentless warfare. It

would have required a body of armed men larger than the whole United

States Army to have withstood this continuous hostile pressure without

ultimate annihilation.

Let it be remembered, therefore, that the American Indian is as much

responsible for the extermination of our northern herd of bison as the

American citizen. I have yet to learn of an instance wherein an Indian

refrained from excessive slaughter of game through motives of economy,

or care for the future, or prejudice against wastefulness. From all

accounts the quantity of game killed by an Indian has always been

limited by two conditions only--lack of energy to kill more, or lack of

more game to be killed. White men delight in the chase, and kill for the

"sport" it yields, regardless of the effort involved. Indeed, to a

genuine sportsman, nothing in hunting is "sport" which is not obtained

at the cost of great labor. An Indian does not view the matter in that

light, and when he has killed enough to supply his wants, he stops,

because he sees no reason why he should exert himself any further. This

has given rise to the statement, so often repeated, that the Indian

killed only enough buffaloes to supply his wants. If an Indian ever

attempted, or even showed any inclination, to husband the resources of

nature in any way, and restrain wastefulness on _the part of Indians_,

it would be gratifying to know of it.

The building of the Northern Pacific Railway across Dakota and Montana

hastened the end that was fast approaching; but it was only an incident

in the annihilation of the northern herd. Without it the final result

would have been just the same, but the end would probably not have been

reached until about 1888.

The Northern Pacific Railway reached Bismarck, Dakota, on the Missouri

River, in the year 1876, and from that date onward received for

transportation eastward all the buffalo robes and hides that came down

the two rivers, Missouri and Yellowstone.

Unfortunately the Northern Pacific Railway Company kept no separate

account of its buffalo product business, and is unable to furnish a

statement of the number of hides and robes it handled. It is therefore

impossible to even make an estimate of the total number of buffaloes

killed on the northern range during the six years which ended with the

annihilation of that herd.

In regard to the business done by the Northern Pacific Railway, and the

precise points from whence the bulk of the robes were shipped, the

following letter from Mr. J. M. Hannaford, traffic manager of the

Northern Pacific Railroad, under date of September 3, 1887, is of

interest.

"Your communication, addressed to President Harris, has been referred to

me for the information desired.

"I regret that our accounts are not so kept as to enable me to furnish

you accurate data; but I have been able to obtain the following general

information, which may prove of some value to you:

"From the years 1876 and 1880 our line did not extend beyond Bismarck,

which was the extreme easterly shipping point for buffalo robes and

hides, they being brought down the Missouri River from the north for

shipment from that point. In the years 1876, 1877, 1878, and 1879 there

were handled at that point yearly from three to four thousand bales of

robes, about one-half the bales containing ten robes and the other half

twelve robes each. During these years practically no hides were shipped.

In 1880 the shipment of hides, dry and untanned, commenced,[68] and in

1881 and 1882 our line was extended west, and the shipping points

increased, reaching as far west as Terry and Sully Springs, in Montana.

During these years, 1880, 1881, and 1882, which practically finished the

shipments of hides and robes, it is impossible for me to give you any

just idea of the number shipped. The only figures obtainable are those

of 1881, when over seventy-five thousand dry and untanned buffalo hides

came down the river for shipment from Bismarck. Some robes were also

shipped from this point that year, and a considerable number of robes

and hides were shipped from several other shipping points.

[Note 68: It is to be noted that hairless hides, _taken from buffaloes

killed in summer_, are what the writer refers to. It was not until 1881,

when the end was very near, that hunting buffalo in summer as well as

winter became a wholesale business. What hunting can be more disgraceful

than the slaughter of females and young _in summer_, when skins are

almost worthless.]

"The number of pounds of buffalo meat shipped over our line has never

cut any figure, the bulk of the meat having been left on the prairie, as

not being of sufficient value to pay the cost of transportation.

"The names of the extreme eastern and western stations from which

shipments were made are as follows: In 1880, Bismarck was the only

shipping point. In 1881, Glendive, Bismarck, and Beaver Creek. In 1882,

Terry and Sully Springs, Montana, were the chief shipping points, and in

the order named, so far as numbers and amount of shipments are

concerned. Bismarck on the east and Forsyth on the west were the two

extremities.

"Up to the year 1880, so long as buffalo were killed only for robes, the

bands did not decrease very materially; but beginning with that year,

when they were killed for their hides as well, a most indiscriminate

slaughter commenced, and from that time on they disappeared very

rapidly. Up to the year 1881 there were two large bands, one south of

the Yellowstone and the other north of that river. In the year mentioned

those south of the river were driven north and never returned, having

joined the northern band, and become practically extinguished.

"Since 1882 there have, of course, been occasional shipments both of

hides and robes, but in such small quantities and so seldom that they

cut practically no figure, the bulk of them coming probably from north

Missouri points down the river to Bismarck."

In 1880 the northern buffalo range embraced the following streams; The

Missouri and all its tributaries, from Port Shaw, Montana, to Fort

Bennett, Dakota, and the Yellowstone and all its tributaries. Of this

region, Miles City, Montana, was the geographical center. The grass was

good over the whole of it, and the various divisions of the great herd

were continually shifting from one locality to another, often making

journeys several hundred miles at a time. Over the whole of this vast

area their bleaching bones lie scattered (where they have not as yet

been gathered up for sale) from the Upper Marias and Milk Rivers, near

the British boundary, to the Platte, and from the James River, in

central Dakota, to an elevation of 8,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains.

Indeed, as late as October, 1887, I gathered up on the open common,

within half a mile of the Northern Pacific Railway depot at the city of

Helena, the skull, horns, and numerous odd bones of a large bull buffalo

which had been killed there.

[Illustration: WHERE THE MILLIONS HAVE GONE. From a painting by J. H.

Moser in the National Museum.]

Over many portions of the northern range the traveler may even now ride

for days together without once being out of sight of buffalo

carcasses, or bones. Such was the case in 1886 in the country lying

between the Missouri and the Yellowstone, northwest of Miles City. Go

wherever we might, on divides, into bad lands, creek bottoms, or on the

highest plateaus, we always found the inevitable and omnipresent grim

and ghastly skeleton, with hairy head, dried-up and shriveled nostrils,

half-skinned legs stretched helplessly upon the gray turf, and the bones

of the body bleached white as chalk.

The year 1881 witnessed the same kind of a stampede for the northern

buffalo range that occurred just ten years previously in the south. At

that time robes were worth from two to three times as much as they ever

had been in the south, the market was very active, and the successful

hunter was sure to reap a rich reward as long as the buffaloes lasted.

At that time the hunters and hide-buyers estimated that there were five

hundred thousand buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City,

and that there were still in the entire northern herd not far from one

million head. The subsequent slaughter proved that these estimates were

probably not far from the truth. In that year Fort Custer was so nearly

overwhelmed by a passing herd that a detachment of soldiers was ordered

out to turn the herd away from the post. In 1882 an immense herd

appeared on the high, level plateau on the north side of the Yellowstone

which overlooks Miles City and Fort Keogh in the valley below. A squad

of soldiers from the Fifth Infantry was sent up on the bluff, and in

less than an hour had killed enough buffaloes to load six four-mule

teams with meat. In 1886 there were still about twenty bleaching

skeletons lying in a group on the edge of this plateau at the point

where the road from the ferry reaches the level, but all the rest had

been gathered up.

In 1882 there were, so it is estimated by men who were in the country,

no fewer than five thousand white hunters and skinners on the northern

range. Lieut. J. M. T. Partello declares that "a cordon of camps, from

the Upper Missouri, where it bends to the west, stretched toward the

setting sun as far as the dividing line of Idaho, completely blocking in

the great ranges of the Milk River, the Musselshell, Yellowstone, and

the Marias, and rendering it impossible for scarcely a single bison to

escape through the chain of sentinel camps to the Canadian northwest.

Hunters of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado drove the poor hunted animals

north, directly into the muzzles of the thousands of repeaters ready to

receive them. * * * Only a few short years ago, as late as 1883, a herd

of about seventy-five thousand crossed the Yellowstone River a few miles

south of here [Fort Keogh], scores of Indians, pot-hunters, and white

butchers on their heels, bound for the Canadian dominions, where they

hoped to find a haven of safety. Alas! not five thousand of that mighty

mass ever lived to reach the British border line."

It is difficult to say (at least to the satisfaction of old hunters)

which were the most famous hunting grounds on the northern range.

Lieutenant Partello states that when he hunted in the great triangle

bounded by the three rivers, Missouri, Musselshell, and Yellowstone, it

contained, to the best of his knowledge and belief, two hundred and

fifty thousand buffaloes. Unquestionably that region yielded an immense

number of buffalo robes, and since the slaughter _thousands of tons_ of

bones have been gathered up there. Another favorite locality was the

country lying between the Powder River and the Little Missouri,

particularly the valleys of Beaver and O'Fallon Creeks. Thither went

scores of "outfits" and hundreds of hunters and skinners from the

Northern Pacific Railway towns from Miles City to Glendive. The hunters

from the towns between Glendive and Bismarck mostly went south to Cedar

Creek and the Grand and Moreau Rivers. But this territory was also the

hunting ground of the Sioux Indians from the great reservation farther

south.

Thousands upon thousands of buffaloes were killed on the Milk and Marias

Rivers, in the Judith Basin, and in northern Wyoming.

The method of slaughter has already been fully described under the head

of "the still-hunt," and need not be recapitulated. It is some

gratification to know that the shocking and criminal wastefulness which

was so marked a feature of the southern butchery was almost wholly

unknown in the north. Robes were worth from $1.50 to $3.50, according to

size and quality, and were removed and preserved with great care. Every

one hundred robes marketed represented not more than one hundred and ten

dead buffaloes, and even this small percentage of loss was due to the

escape of wounded animals which afterward died and were devoured by the

wolves. After the skin was taken off the hunter or skinner stretched it

carefully upon the ground, inside uppermost, cut his initials in the

adherent subcutaneous muscle, and left it until the season for hauling

in the robes, which was always done in the early spring, immediately

following the hunt.

As was the case in the south, it was the ability of a single hunter to

destroy an entire bunch of buffalo in a single day that completely

annihilated the remaining thousands of the northern herd before the

people of the United States even learned what was going on. For example,

one hunter of my acquaintance, Vic. Smith, the most famous hunter in

Montana, killed one hundred and seven buffaloes in one "stand," in about

one hour's time, and without shifting his point of attack. This occurred

in the Red Water country, about 100 miles northeast of Miles City, in

the winter of 1881-'82. During the same season another hunter, named

"Doc." Aughl, killed eighty-five buffaloes at one "stand," and John

Edwards killed seventy-five. The total number that Smith claims to have

killed that season is "about five thousand." Where buffaloes were at all

plentiful, every man who called himself a hunter was expected to kill

between one and two thousand during the hunting season--from November to

February--and when the buffaloes were to be found it was a comparatively

easy thing to do.

During the year 1882 the thousands of bison that still remained alive

on the range indicated above, and also marked out on the accompanying

map, were distributed over that entire area very generally. In February

of that year a Fort Benton correspondent of _Forest and Stream_ wrote as

follows: "It is truly wonderful how many buffalo are still left.

Thousands of Indians and hundreds of white men depend on them for a

living. At present nearly all the buffalo in Montana are between Milk

River and Bear Paw Mountains. There are only a few small bands between

the Missouri and the Yellowstone." There were plenty of buffalo on the

Upper Marias River in October, 1882. In November and December there were

thousands between the Missouri and the Yellowstone Rivers. South of the

Northern Pacific Railway the range during the hunting season of 1882-'83

was thus defined by a hunter who has since written out the "Confessions

of a Buffalo Butcher" for _Forest and Stream_ (vol. xxiv, p. 489): "Then

[October, 1882] the western limit was defined in a general way by Powder

River, and extending eastward well toward the Missouri and south to

within 60 or 70 miles of the Black Hills. It embraces the valleys of all

tributaries to Powder River from the east, all of the valleys of Beaver

Creek, O'Fallon Creek, and the Little Missouri and Moreau Rivers, and

both forks of the Cannon Ball for almost half their length. This immense

territory, lying almost equally in Montana and Dakota, had been occupied

during the winters by many thousands of buffaloes from time immemorial,

and many of the cows remained during the summer and brought forth their

young undisturbed."

The three hunters composing the party whose record is narrated in the

interesting sketch referred to, went out from Miles City on October 23,

1882, due east to the bad lands between the Powder River and O'Fallon

Creek, and were on the range all winter. They found comparatively few

buffaloes, and secured only two hundred and eighty-six robes, which they

sold at an average price of $2.20 each. They saved and marketed a large

quantity of meat, for which they obtained 3 cents per pound. They found

the whole region in which they hunted fairly infested with Indians and

half-breeds, all hunting buffalo.

The hunting season which began in October, 1882, and ended in February,

1883, finished the annihilation of the great northern herd, and left but

a few small bauds of stragglers, numbering only a very few thousand

individuals all told. A noted event of the season was the retreat

northward across the Yellowstone of the immense herd mentioned by

Lieutenant Partello as containing seventy-five thousand head; others

estimated the number at fifty thousand; and the event is often spoken of

to-day by frontiersmen who were in that region at the time. Many think

that the whole great body went north into British territory, and that

there is still a goodly remnant of it in some remote region between the

Peace River and the Saskatchewan, or somewhere there, which will yet

return to the United States. Nothing could be more illusory than this

belief. In the first place, the herd never reached the British line,

and, if it had, it would have been promptly annihilated by the hungry

Blackfeet and Cree Indians, who were declared to be in a half-starved

condition, through the disappearance of the buffalo, as early as 1879.

The great herd that "went north" was utterly extinguished by the white

hunters along the Missouri River and the Indians living north of it. The

only vestige of it that remained was a band of about two hundred

individuals that took refuge in the labyrinth of ravines and creek

bottoms that lie west of the Musselshell between Flat Willow and Box

Elder Creeks, and another band of about seventy-five which settled in

the bad lands between the head of the Big Dry and Big Porcupine Creeks,

where a few survivors were found by the writer in 1886.

South of the Northern Pacific Railway, a band of about three hundred

settled permanently in and around the Yellowstone National Park, but in

a very short time every animal outside of the protected limits of the

park was killed, and whenever any of the park buffaloes strayed beyond

the boundary they too were promptly killed for their heads and hides. At

present the number remaining in the park is believed by Captain Harris,

the superintendent, to be about two hundred; about one-third of which is

due to breeding in the protected territory.

In the southeast the fate of that portion of the herd is well known. The

herd which at the beginning of the hunting season of 1883 was known to

contain about ten thousand head, and ranged in western Dakota, about

half way between the Black Hills and Bismarck, between the Moreau and

Grand Rivers, was speedily reduced to about one thousand head. Vic.

Smith, who was "in at the death," says there were eleven hundred, others

say twelve hundred. Just at this juncture (October, 1883) Sitting Bull

and his whole band of nearly one thousand braves arrived from the

Standing Sock Agency, and in two days' time slaughtered the entire herd.

Vic. Smith and a host of white hunters took part in the killing of this

last ten thousand, and he declares that "when we got through the hunt

there was not a hoof left. That wound up the buffalo in the Far West,

only a stray bull being seen here and there afterwards."

Curiously enough, not even the buffalo hunters themselves were at the

time aware of the fact that the end of the hunting season of 1882-'83

was also the end of the buffalo, at least as an inhabitant of the plains

and a source of revenue. In the autumn of 1883 they nearly all outfitted

as usual, often at an expense of many hundreds of dollars, and blithely

sought "the range" that had up to that time been so prolific in robes.

The end was in nearly every case the same--total failure and bankruptcy.

It was indeed hard to believe that not only the millions, but also the

thousands, had actually gone, and forever.

I have found it impossible to ascertain definitely the number of robes

and hides shipped from the northern range during the last years of the

slaughter, and the only reliable estimate I have obtained was made for

me, alter much consideration and reflection, by Mr. J. N. Davis, of

Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mr. Davis was for many years a buyer of furs,

robes, and hides on a large scale throughout our Northwestern

Territories, and was actively engaged in buying up buffalo robes as long

as there were any to buy. In reply to a letter asking for statistics, he

wrote me as follows, on September 27, 1887:

"It is impossible to give the exact number of robes and hides shipped

out of Dakota and Montana from 1876 to 1883, or the exact number of

buffalo in the northern herd; but I will give you as correct an account

as any one can. In 1876 it was estimated that there were half a million

buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City. In 1881 the

Northern Pacific Railroad was built as far west as Glendive and Miles

City. At that time the whole country was a howling wilderness, and

Indians and wild buffalo were too numerous to mention. The first

shipment of buffalo robes, killed by white men, was made that year, and

the stations on the Northern Pacific Railroad between Miles City and

Mandan sent out about fifty thousand hides and robes. In 1882 the number

of hides and robes bought and shipped was about two hundred thousand,

and in 1883 forty thousand. In 1884 I shipped from Dickinson, Dakota

Territory, the only car load of robes that went East that year, and it

was the last shipment ever made."

For a long time the majority of the ex-hunters cherished the fond

delusion that the great herd had only "gone north" into the British

Possessions, and would eventually return in great force. Scores of

rumors of the finding of herds floated about, all of which were eagerly

believed at first. But after a year or two had gone by without the

appearance of a single buffalo, and likewise without any reliable

information of the existence of a herd of any size, even in British

territory, the butchers of the buffalo either hung up their old Sharps

rifles, or sold them for nothing to the gun-dealers, and sought other

means of livelihood. Some took to gathering up buffalo bones and selling

them by the ton, and others became cowboys.

IV. CONGRESSIONAL LEGISLATION FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE BISON.

The slaughter of the buffalo down to the very point of extermination has

been so very generally condemned, and the general Government has been so

unsparingly blamed for allowing such a massacre to take place on the

public domain, it is important that the public should know all the facts

in the case. To the credit of Congress it must be said that several very

determined efforts were made between the years 1871 and 1876 looking

toward the protection of the buffalo. The failure of all those

well-meant efforts was due to our republican form of Government. Had

this Government been a monarchy the buffalo would have been protected;

but unfortunately in this case (perhaps the only one on record wherein a

king could have accomplished more than the representatives of the

people) the necessary act of Congress was so hedged in and beset by

obstacles that it never became an accomplished fact. Even when both

houses of Congress succeeded in passing a suitable act (June 23, 1874)

it went to the President in the last days of the session only to be

pigeon-holed, and die a natural death.

The following is a complete history of Congressional legislation in

regard to the protection of the buffalo from wanton slaughter and

ultimate extinction. The first step taken in behalf of this persecuted

animal was on March 13, 1871, when Mr. McCormick, of Arizona, introduced

a bill (H. R. 157), which was ordered to be printed. Nothing further was

done with it. It read as follows:

_Be it enacted, etc._, That, excepting for the purpose of using the meat

for food or preserving the akin, it shall be unlawful for any person to

kill the bison, or buffalo, found anywhere upon the public lands of the

United States; and for the violation of this law the offender shall,

upon conviction before any court of competent jurisdiction, be liable to

a fine of $100 for each animal killed, one-half of which sum shall, upon

its collection, be paid to the informer.

On February 14, 1872, Mr. Cole, of California, introduced in the Senate

the following resolution, which was considered by unanimous consent and

agreed to:

_Resolved_, That the Committee on Territories be directed to inquire

into the expediency of enacting a law for the protection of the buffalo,

elk, antelope, and other useful animals running wild in the Territories

of the United States against indiscriminate slaughter and extermination,

and that they report by bill or otherwise.

On February 16, 1872, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a bill in

the Senate (S. 655) restricting the killing of the buffalo upon the

public lauds; which was read twice by its title and referred to the

Committee on Territories.

On April 5, 1872, Mr. B. C. McCormick, of Arizona, made a speech in the

House of Representatives, while it was in Committee of the Whole, on the

restriction of the killing of buffalo.

He mentioned a then recent number of _Harper's Weekly_, in which were

illustrations of the slaughter of buffalo, and also read a partly

historical extract in regard to the same. He related how, when he was

once snow-bound upon the Kansas Pacific Railroad, the buffalo furnished

food for himself and fellow-passengers. Then he read the bill introduced

by him March 13, 1871, and also copies of letters furnished him by Henry

Bergh, president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty

to Animals, which were sent to the latter by General W. B. Hazen, Lieut.

Col. A. G. Brackett, and E. W. Wynkoop. He also read a statement by

General Hazen to the effect that he knew of a man who killed ninety-nine

buffaloes with his own hand in one day. He also spoke on the subject of

cross-breeding the buffalo with common cattle, and read an extract in

regard to it from the San Francisco _Post_.[69]

[Note 69: Congressional Globe (Appendix), second session Forty-second

Congress.]

On April 6, 1872, Mr. McCormick asked leave to have printed in the

Globe some remarks he had prepared regarding restricting the killing of

buffalo, which was granted.[70]

[Note 70: Congressional Globe, April 6, 1872, Forty-second Congress,

second session.]

On January 5, 1874, Mr. Fort, of Illinois, introduced a bill (H. R. 921)

to prevent the useless slaughter of buffalo within the Territories of

the United States; which was read and referred to the Committee on the

Territories.[71]

[Note 71: Congressional Record, vol. 2, part 1, Forty-third Congress,

p. 371.]

On March 10, 1874, this bill was reported to the House from the

Committee on the Territories, with a recommendation that it be

passed.[72]

[Note 72: Congressional Record, vol. 2, part 3, Forty-third Congress,

first session, pp. 2105, 2109.]

The first section of the bill provided that it shall be unlawful for any

person, who is not an Indian, to kill, wound, or in any way destroy any

female buffalo of any age, found at large within the boundaries of any

of the Territories of the United States.

The second section provided that it shall be, in like manner, unlawful

for any such person to kill, wound, or destroy in said Territories any

greater number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such

person, or than can be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other

persons, or for the market. It shall in like manner be unlawful for any

such person, or persons, to assist, or be in any manner engaged or

concerned in or about such unlawful killing, wounding, or destroying of

any such buffaloes; that any person who shall violate the provisions of

the act shall, on conviction, forfeit and pay to the United States the

sum of $100 for each offense (and each buffalo so unlawfully killed,

wounded, or destroyed shall be and constitute a separate offense), and

on a conviction of a second offense may be committed to prison for a

period not exceeding thirty days; and that all United States judges,

justices, courts, and legal tribunals in said Territories shall have

jurisdiction in cases of the violation of the law.

Mr. Cox said he had been told by old hunters that it was impossible to

tell the sex of a running buffalo; and he also stated that the bill gave

preference to the Indians.

Mr. Fort said the object was to prevent early extermination; that

thousands were annually slaughtered for skins alone, and thousands for

their tongues alone; that perhaps hundreds of thousands are killed every

year in utter wantonness, with no object for such destruction. He had

been told that the sexes could be distinguished while they were

running.[73]

[Note 73: I know of no greater affront that could be offered to the

intelligence of a genuine buffalo-hunter than to accuse him of not

knowing enough to tell the sex of a buffalo "on the run" by its form

alone.--W. T. H.]

This bill does not prohibit any person joining in a reasonable chase and

hunt of the buffalo.

Said Mr. Fort, "So far as I am advised, gentlemen upon this floor

representing all the Territories are favorable to the passage of this

bill."

Mr. Cox wanted the clause excepting the Indians from the operations of

the bill stricken out, and stated that the Secretary of the Interior had

already said to the House that the civilization of the Indian was

Impossible while the buffalo remained on the plains.

The Clerk read for Mr. McCormick the following extract from the _New

Mexican_, a paper published in Santa Fé:

The buffalo slaughter, which has been going on the past few years on the

plains, and which increases every year, is wantonly wicked, and should

be stopped by the most stringent enactments and most vigilant

enforcements of the law. Killing these noble animals for their hides

simply, or to gratify the pleasure of some Russian duke or English lord,

is a species of vandalism which can not too quickly be checked. United

States surveying parties report that there are two thousand hunters on

the plains killing these animals for their hides. One party of sixteen

hunters report having killed twenty-eight thousand buffaloes during the

past summer. It seems to us there is quite as much reason why the

Government should protect the buffaloes as the Indians.

Mr. McCormick considered the subject important, and had not a doubt of

the fearful slaughter. He read the following extract from a letter that

he had received from General Hazen:

I know a man who killed with his own hand ninety-nine buffaloes in one

day, without taking a pound of the meat. The buffalo for food has an

intrinsic value about equal to an average Texas beef, or say $20. There

are probably not less than a million of these animals on the western

plains. If the Government owned a herd of a million oxen they would at

least take steps to prevent this wanton slaughter. The railroads have

made the buffalo so accessible as to present a case not dissimilar.

He agreed with Mr. Cox that some features of the bill would probably be

impracticable, and moved to amend it. He did not believe any bill would

entirely accomplish the purpose, but he desired that such wanton

slaughter should be stopped.

Said he, "It would have been well both for the Indians and the white men

if an enactment of this kind had been placed on our statute-books years

ago. * * * I know of no one act that would gratify the red men more."

Mr. Holman expressed surprise that Mr. Cox should make any objection to

parts of the measure. The former regarded the bill as "an effort in a

most commendable direction," and trusted that it would pass.

Mr. Cox said he would not have objected to the bill but from the fact

that it was partial in its provisions. He wanted a bill that would

impose a penalty on every man, red, white, or black, who may wantonly

kill these buffaloes.

Mr. Potter desired to know whether more buffaloes were slaughtered by

the Indians than by white men.

Mr. Fort thought the white men were doing the greatest amount of

killing.

Mr. Eldridge thought there would be just as much propriety in killing

the fish in our rivers as in destroying the buffalo in order to compel

the Indians to become civilized.

Mr. Conger said: "As a matter of fact, every man knows the range of the

buffalo has grown more and more confined year after year; that they have

been driven westward before advancing civilization." But he opposed the

bill!

Mr. Hawley, of Connecticut, said: "I am glad to see this bill. I am in

favor of this law, and hope it will pass."

Mr. Lowe favored the bill, and thought that the buffalo ought to be

protected for proper utility.

Mr. Cobb thought they ought to be protected for the settlers, who

depended partly on them for food.

Mr. Parker, of Missouri, intimated that the policy of the Secretary of

the Interior was a sound one, and that the buffaloes ought to be

exterminated, to prevent difficulties in civilizing the Indians.

Said Mr. Conger, "I do not think the measure will tend at all to protect

the buffalo."

Mr. McCormick replied: "This bill will not prevent the killing of

buffaloes for any useful purpose, but only their wanton destruction."

Mr. Kasson said: "I wish to say one word in support of this bill,

because I have had some experience as to the manner in which these

buffaloes are treated by hunters. The buffalo is a creature of vast

utility, * * *. This animal ought to be protected; * * *."

The question being taken on the passage of the bill, there were--ayes

132, noes not counted.

So the bill was passed.

On June 23, 1874, this bill (H. R. 921) came up in the Senate.[74]

[Note 74: Congressional Globe, Vol. 2, part 6, Forty-third Congress,

first session.]

Mr. Harvey moved, as an amendment, to strike out the words "who is not

an Indian."

Said Mr. Hitchcock, "That will defeat the bill."

Mr. Frelinghuysen said: "That would prevent the Indians from killing the

buffalo on their own ground. I object to the bill."

Mr. Sargent said: "I think we can pass the bill in the right shape

without objection. Let us take it up. It is a very important one."

Mr. Frelinghuysen withdrew his objection.

Mr. Harvey thought it was a very important bill, and withdrew his

amendment.

The bill was reported to the Senate, ordered to a third reading, read

the third time, and passed. It went to President Grant for signature,

and expired in his hands at the adjournment of that session of Congress.

On February 2, 1874, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 1689) to tax

buffalo hides; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

On June 10, 1874, Mr. Dawes, from the Committee on Ways and Means,

reported back the bill adversely, and moved that it be laid on the

table.

Mr. Fort asked to have the bill referred to the Committee of the

Whole, and it was so referred.

On February 2, 1874, Mr. R. C. McCormick, of Arizona, introduced in the

House a bill (H. R. 1728) restricting the killing of the bison, or

buffalo, on the public lands; which was referred to the Committee on the

Public Lands, and never heard of more.

On January 31, 1876, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 1719) to prevent

the useless slaughter of buffaloes within the Territories of the United

States, which was referred to the Committee on the Territories.[75]

[Note 75: Forty-fourth Congress, first session, vol. 4, part 2, pp.

1237-1241.]

The Committee on the Territories reported back the bill without

amendment on February 23, 1876.[76] Its provisions were in every respect

identical with those of the bill introduced by Mr. Fort in 1874, and

which passed both houses.

[Note 76: Forty-fourth Congress first session, vol. 4, part 1, p. 773.]

In support of it Mr. Fort said: "The intention and object of this bill

is to preserve them [the buffaloes] for the use of the Indians, whose

homes are upon the public domain, and to the frontiersmen, who may

properly use them for food. * * * They have been and are now being

slaughtered in large numbers. * * * Thousands of these noble brutes are

annually slaughtered out of mere wontonness. * * * This bill, just as it

is now presented, passed the last Congress. It was not vetoed, but fell,

as I understand, merely for want of time to consider it after having

passed both houses." He also intimated that the Government was using a

great deal of money for cattle to furnish the Indians, while the buffalo

was being wantonly destroyed, whereas they might be turned to their

good.

Mr. Crounse wanted the words "who is not an Indian" struck out, so as to

make the bill general. He thought Indians were to blame for the wanton

destruction.

Mr. Fort thought the amendment unnecessary, and stated that he was

informed that the Indians did not destroy the buffaloes wantonly.

Mr. Dunnell thought the bill one of great importance.

The Clerk read for him a letter from A. G. Brackett, lieutenant-colonel,

Second United States Cavalry, stationed at Omaha Barracks, in which was

a very urgent request to have Congress interfere to prevent the

wholesale slaughter then going on.

Mr. Reagan thought the bill proper and right. He knew from personal

experience how the wanton slaughtering was going on, and also that the

Indians were _not_ the ones who did it.

Mr. Townsend, of New York, saw no reason why a white man should not be

allowed to kill a female buffalo as well as an Indian. He said it would

be impracticable to have a separate law for each.

Mr. Maginnis did not agree with him. He thought the bill ought to pass

as it stood.

Mr. Throckmorton thought that while the intention of the bill was a

good one, yet it was mischievous and difficult to enforce, and would

also work hardship to a large portion of our frontier people. He had

several objections. He also thought a cow buffalo could not be

distinguished at a distance.

Mr. Hancock, of Texas, thought the bill an impolicy, and that the sooner

the buffalo was exterminated the better.

Mr. Fort replied by asking him why all the game--deer, antelope,

etc.--was not slaughtered also. Then he went on to state that to

exterminate the buffalo would be to starve innocent children of the red

man, and to make the latter more wild and savage than he was already.

Mr. Baker, of Indiana, offered the following amendment as a substitute

for the one already offered:

_Provided_, That any white person who shall employ, hire, or procure,

directly or indirectly, any Indian to kill any buffalo forbidden to be

killed by this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished

in the manner provided in this act.

Mr. Fort stated that a certain clause in his bill covered the object of

the amendment.

Mr. Jenks offered the following amendment:

Strike out in the fourth line of the second section the word "can" and

insert "shall;" and in the second line of the same section insert the

word "wantonly" before "kill;" so that the clause will read:

"That it shall be in like manner unlawful for any such person to

wantonly kill, wound, or destroy in the said Territories any greater

number of male buffaloes than are needed for food by such person, or

than shall be used, cured, or preserved for the food of other persons,

or for the market."

Mr. Conger said: "I think the whole bill is unwise. I think it is a

useless measure."

Mr. Hancock said: "I move that the bill and amendment be laid on the

table."

The motion to lay the bill upon the table was defeated, and the

amendment was rejected.

Mr. Conger called for a division on the passage of the bill. The House

divided, and there were--ayes 93, noes 48. He then demanded tellers, and

they reported--ayes 104, noes 36. So the bill was passed.

On February 25, 1876, the bill was reported to the Senate, and referred

to the Committee on Territories, from whence it never returned.

On March 20, 1876, Mr. Fort introduced a bill (H. R. 2767) to tax

buffalo hides; which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means,

and never heard of afterward.

This was the last move made in Congress in behalf of the buffalo. The

philanthropic friends of the frontiersman, the Indian, and of the

buffalo himself, despaired of accomplishing the worthy object for which

they had so earnestly and persistently labored, and finally gave up the

fight. At the very time the effort in behalf of buffalo protection was

abandoned the northern herd still flourished, and might have been

preserved from extirpation.

At various times the legislatures of a few of the Western States and

Territories enacted laws vaguely and feebly intended to provide some

sort of protection to the fast disappearing animals. One of the first

was the game law of Colorado, passed in 1872, which declared that the

killers of game should not leave any flesh to spoil. The western game

laws of those days amounted to about as much as they do now; practically

nothing at all. I have never been able to learn of a single instance,

save in the Yellowstone Park, wherein a western hunter was prevented by

so simple and innocuous a thing as a game law from killing game. Laws

were enacted, but they were always left to enforce themselves. The idea

of the frontiersman (the average, at least) has always been to kill as

much game as possible before some other fellow gets a chance at it, _and

before it is all killed off_! So he goes at the game, and as a general

thing kills all he can while it lasts, and with it feeds himself and

family, his dogs, and even his hogs, to repletion. I knew one Montana

man north of Miles City who killed for his own use twenty-six black-tail

deer in one season, and had so much more venison than he could consume

or give away that a great pile of carcasses lay in his yard until spring

and spoiled.

During the existence of the buffalo it was declared by many an

impossibility to stop or prevent the slaughter. Such an accusation of

weakness and imbecility on the part of the General Government is an

insult to our strength and resources. The protection of game is now and

always has been simply a question of money. A proper code of game laws

and a reasonable number of salaried game-wardens, sworn to enforce them

and punish all offenses against them, would have afforded the buffalo as

much protection as would have been necessary to his continual existence.

To be sure, many buffaloes would have been killed on the sly in spite of

laws to the contrary, but it was wholesale slaughter that wrought the

extermination, and that could easily have been prevented. A tax of 50

cents each on buffalo robes would have maintained a sufficient number of

game-wardens to have reasonably regulated the killing, and maintained

for an indefinite period a bountiful source of supply of food, and also

raiment for both the white man of the plains and the Indian. By

judicious management the buffalo could have been made to yield an annual

revenue equal to that we now receive from the fur-seals--$100,000 per

year.

During the two great periods of slaughter--1870-'75 and 1880-'84--the

principal killing grounds were as well known as the stock-yards of

Chicago. Had proper laws been enacted, and had either the general or

territorial governments entered with determination upon the task of

restricting the killing of buffaloes to proper limits, their enforcement

would have been, in the main, as simple and easy as the collection of

taxes. Of course the solitary hunter in a remote locality would have

bowled over his half dozen buffaloes in secure defiance of the law; but

such desultory killing could not have made much impression on the great

mass for many years. The business-like, wholesale slaughter, wherein

one hunter would openly kill five thousand buffaloes and market perhaps

two thousand hides, could easily have been stopped forever. Buffalo

hides could not have been dealt in clandestinely, for many reasons, and

had there been no sale for ill-gotten spoils the still-hunter would have

gathered no spoils to sell. It was an undertaking of considerable

magnitude, and involving a cash outlay of several hundred dollars to

make up an "outfit" of wagons, horses, arms and ammunition, food, etc.,

for a trip to "the range" after buffaloes. It was these wholesale

hunters, both in the North and the South, who exterminated the species,

and to say that all such undertakings could not have been effectually

prevented by law is to accuse our law-makers and law-officers of

imbecility to a degree hitherto unknown. There is nowhere in this

country, nor in any of the waters adjacent to it, a living species of

any kind which the United States Government can not fully and

perpetually protect from destruction by human agencies if it chooses to

do so. The destruction of the buffalo was a loss of wealth perhaps

twenty times greater than the sum it would have cost to conserve it, and

this stupendous waste of valuable food and other products was committed

by one class of the American people and permitted by another with a

prodigality and wastefulness which even in the lowest savages would be

inexcusable.

V. COMPLETENESS OF THE EXTERMINATION.

(May 1, 1889.)

Although the existence of a few widely-scattered individuals enables us

to say that the bison is not yet absolutely extinct in a wild state,

there is no reason to hope that a single wild and unprotected individual

will remain alive ten years hence. The nearer the species approaches to

complete extermination, the more eagerly are the wretched fugitives

pursued to the death whenever found. Western hunters are striving for

the honor (?) of killing the last buffalo, which, it is to be noted, has

already been slain about a score of times by that number of hunters.

The buffaloes still alive in a wild state are so very few, and have been

so carefully "marked down" by hunters, it is possible to make a very

close estimate of the total number remaining. In this enumeration the

small herd in the Yellowstone National Park is classed with other herds

in captivity and under protection, for the reason that, had it not been

for the protection afforded by the law and the officers of the Park, not

one of these buffaloes would be living to-day. Were the restrictions of

the law removed now, every one of those animals would be killed within

three months. Their heads alone are worth from $25 to $50 each to

taxidermists, and for this reason every buffalo is a prize worth the

hunter's winning. Had it not been for stringent laws, and a rigid

enforcement of them by Captain Harris, the last of the Park buffaloes

would have been shot years ago by Vic. Smith, the Rea Brothers, and

other hunters, of whom there is always an able contingent around the

Park.

In the United States the death of a buffalo is now such an event that it

is immediately chronicled by the Associated Press and telegraphed all

over the country. By reason of this, and from information already in

hand, we are able to arrive at a very fair understanding of the present

condition of the species in a wild state.

In December, 1886, the Smithsonian expedition left about fifteen

buffaloes alive in the bad lands of the Missouri-Yellowstone divide, at

the head of Big Porcupine Creek. In 1887 three of these were killed by

cowboys, and in 1888 two more, the last death recorded being that of an

old bull killed near Billings. There are probably eight or ten

stragglers still remaining in that region, hiding in the wildest and

most broken tracts of the bad lands, as far as possible from the cattle

ranches, and where even cowboys seldom go save on a round-up. From the

fact that no other buffaloes, at least so far as can be learned, have

been killed in Montana during the last two years, I am convinced that

the bunch referred to are the last representatives of the species

remaining in Montana.

In the spring of 1886 Mr. B. C. Winston, while on a hunting trip about

75 miles west of Grand Rapids, Dakota, saw seven buffaloes--five adult

animals and two calves; of which he killed one, a large bull, and caught

a calf alive. On September 11, 1888, a solitary bull was killed 3 miles

from the town of Oakes, in Dickey County. There are still three

individuals in the unsettled country lying between that point and the

Missouri, which are undoubtedly the only wild representatives of the

race east of the Missouri River.

On April 28, 1887, Dr. William Stephenson, of the United States Army,

wrote me as follows from Pilot Butte, about 30 miles north of Rock

Springs, Wyoming:

"There are undoubtedly buffalo within 50 or 60 miles of here, two having

been killed out of a band of eighteen some ten days since by cowboys,

and another band of four seen near there. I hear from cattlemen of their

being seen every year north and northeast of here."

This band was seen once in 1888. In February, 1889, Hon. Joseph M.

Carey, member of Congress from Wyoming, received a letter informing him

that this band of buffaloes, consisting of twenty-six head, had been

seen grazing in the Red Desert of Wyoming, and that the Indians were

preparing to attack it. At Judge Carey's request the Indian Bureau

issued orders which it was hoped would prevent the slaughter. So, until

further developments, we have the pleasure of recording the presence of

twenty-six wild buffaloes in southern Wyoming.

There are no buffaloes whatever in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Park,

either in Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho, save what wander out of that

reservation, and when any do, they are speedily killed.

There is a rumor that there are ten or twelve mountain buffaloes still

on foot in Colorado, in a region called Lost Park, and, while it lacks

confirmation, we gladly accept it as a fact. In 1888 Mr. C. B. Cory, of

Boston, saw in Denver, Colorado, eight fresh buffalo skins, which it was

said had come from the region named above. In 1885 there was a herd of

about forty "mountain buffalo" near South Park, and although some of the

number may still survive, the indications are that the total number of

wild buffaloes in Colorado does not exceed twenty individuals.

In Texas a miserable remnant of the great southern herd still remains in

the "Pan-handle country," between the two forks of the Canadian River.

In 1886 about two hundred head survived, which number by the summer of

1887 had been reduced to one hundred, or less. In the hunting season of

1887-'88 a ranchman named Lee Howard fitted out and led a strong party

into the haunts of the survivors, and killed fifty-two of them. In May,

1888, Mr. C. J. Jones again visited this region for the purpose of

capturing buffaloes alive. His party found, from first to last,

thirty-seven buffaloes, of which they captured eighteen head, eleven

adult cows and seven calves; the greatest feat ever accomplished in

buffalo-hunting. It is highly probable that Mr. Jones and his men saw

about all the buffaloes now living in the Pan-handle country, and it

therefore seems quite certain that not over twenty-five individuals

remain. These are so few, so remote, and so difficult to reach, it is to

be hoped no one will consider them worth going after, and that they will

be left to take care of themselves. It is greatly to be regretted that

the State of Texas does not feel disposed to make a special effort for

their protection and preservation.

In regard to the existence of wild buffaloes in the British Possessions,

the statements of different authorities are at variance, by far the

larger number holding the opinion that there are in all the Northwest

Territory only a few almost solitary stragglers. But there is still good

reason for the hope, and also the belief, that there still remain in

Athabasca, between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers, at least a few

hundred "wood buffalo." In a very interesting and well-considered

article in the London _Field_ of November 10, 1888, Mr. Miller Christy

quotes all the available positive evidence bearing on this point, and I

gladly avail myself of the opportunity to reproduce it here:

"The Hon. Dr. Schulz, in the recent debate on the Mackenzie River basin,

in the Canadian senate, quoted Senator Hardisty, of Edmonton, of the

Hudson's Bay Company, to the effect that the wood buffalo still existed

in the region in question. 'It was,' he said, 'difficult to estimate how

many; but probably five or six hundred still remain in scattered bands.'

There had been no appreciable difference in their numbers, he thought,

during the last fifteen years, as they could not be hunted on horseback,

on account of the wooded character of the country, and were, therefore,

very little molested. They are larger than the buffalo of the great

plains, weighing at least 150 pounds more. They are also coarser haired

and straighter horned.

"The doctor also quoted Mr. Frank Oliver, of Edmonton, to the effect

that the wood buffalo still exists in small numbers between the Lower

Peace and Great Slave Rivers, extending westward from the latter to the

Salt River in latitude 60 degrees, and also between the Peace and

Athabasca Rivers. He states that 'they are larger than the prairie

buffalo, and the fur is darker, but practically they are the same

animal.' ...Some buffalo meat is brought in every winter to the Hudson's

Bay Company's posts nearest the buffalo ranges.

"Dr. Schulz further stated that he had received the following testimony

from Mr. Donald Ross, of Edmonton: The wood buffalo still exists in the

localities named. About 1870 one was killed as far west on Peace River

as Port Dunvegan. They are quite different from the prairie buffalo,

being nearly double the size, as they will dress fully 700 pounds."

It will be apparent to most observers, I think, that Mr. Ross's

statement in regard to the size of the wood buffalo is a random shot.

In a private letter to the writer, under date of October 22, 1887, Mr.

Harrison S. Young, of the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Edmonton,

writes as follows:

"The buffalo are not yet extinct in the Northwest. There are still some

stray ones on the prairies away to the south of this, but they must be

very few. I am unable to find any one who has personal knowledge of the

killing of one during the last two years, though I have since the

receipt of your letter questioned a good many half-breeds on the

subject. In our district of Athabasca, along the Salt River, there are

still a few wood buffalo killed every year, but they are fast

diminishing in numbers and are also becoming very shy."

In his "Manitoba and the Great Northwest" Prof. John Macoun has this to

say regarding the presence of the wood buffalo in the region referred

to:

"The wood buffalo, when I was on the Peace River in 1875, were confined

to the country lying between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers north of

latitude 57° 30', or chiefly in the Birch Hills. They were also said to

be in some abundance on the Salt and Hay Rivers, running into the Save

River north of Peace River. The herds thirteen years ago [now nineteen]

were supposed to number about one thousand, all told. I believe many

still exist, as the Indians of that region eat fish, which are much

easier procured than either buffalo or moose, and the country is much

too difficult for white men."

All this evidence, when carefully considered, resolves itself into

simply this and no more: The only evidence in favor of the existence of

any live buffaloes between the Athabasca and Peace Rivers is in the form

of very old rumors, most of them nearly fifteen years old; time enough

for the Indians to have procured fire-arms in abundance and killed all

those buffaloes two or three times over.

Mr. Miller Christy takes "the mean of the estimates," and assumes that

there are now about five hundred and fifty buffaloes in the region

named. If we are to believe in the existence there of any stragglers his

estimate is a fair one, and we will gladly accept it. The total is

therefore as follows:

+-------------------------------------------------+

| _Number of American bison running wild |

| and unprotected on January 1, 1889._ |

+-------------------------------------------------+

|In the Pan-handle of Texas | 25|

|In Colorado | 20|

|In southern Wyoming | 26|

|In the Musselshell country, Montana | 10|

|In western Dakota | 4|

| |---|

| Total number in the United States | 85|

|In Athabasca, Northwest Territory (estimated)|550|

| |---|

| Total in all North America |635|

+-------------------------------------------------+

Add to the above the total number already recorded in captivity (256)

and those under Government protection in the Yellowstone Park (200), and

the whole number of individuals of _Bison americanus_ now living is

1,091.

From this time it is probable that many rumors of the sudden appearance

of herds of buffaloes will become current. Already there have been three

or four that almost deserve special mention. The first appeared in

March, 1887, when various Western newspapers published a circumstantial

account of how a herd of about three hundred buffaloes swam the Missouri

River about 10 miles above Bismarck, near the town of Painted Woods, and

ran on in a southwesterly direction. A letter of inquiry, addressed to

Mr. S. A. Peterson, postmaster at Painted Woods, elicited the following

reply:

"The whole rumor is false, and without any foundation. I saw it first in

the ---- newspaper, where I believe it originated."

In these days of railroads and numberless hunting parties, there is not

the remotest possibility of there being anywhere in the United States a

herd of a hundred, or even fifty, buffaloes which has escaped

observation. Of the eighty-five head still existing in a wild state it

may safely be predicted that not even one will remain alive five years

hence. A buffalo is now so great a prize, and by the ignorant it is

considered so great an honor(!) to kill one, that extraordinary

exertions will be made to find and shoot down without mercy the "last

buffalo."

There is no possible chance for the race to be perpetuated in a wild

state, and in a few years more hardly a bone will remain above ground to

mark the existence of the must prolific mammalian species that ever

existed, so far as we know.

VI. EFFECTS OF THE EXTERMINATION.

The buffalo supplied the Indian with food, clothing, shelter, bedding,

saddles, ropes, shields, and innumerable smaller articles of use and

ornament In the United States a paternal government takes the place of

the buffalo in supplying all these wants of the red man, and it costs

several millions of dollars annually to accomplish the task.

The following are the tribes which depended very largely--some almost

wholly--upon the buffalo for the necessities, and many of the luxuries,

of their savage life until the Government began to support them:

+------------------------------------+

|Sioux |30,561|

|Crow | 3,226|

|Piegan, Blood, and Blackfeet | 2,026|

|Cheyenne | 3,477|

|Gros Ventres | 856|

|Arickaree | 517|

|Mandan | 283|

|Bannack and Shoshone | 2,001|

|Nez Percé | 1,460|

|Assinniboine | 1,688|

|Kiowas and Comanches | 2,756|

|Arapahoes | 1,217|

|Apache | 332|

|Ute | 978|

|Omaha | 1,160|

|Pawnee | 998|

|Winnebago | 1,222|

| |------|

| Total |54,758|

+------------------------------------+

This enumeration (from the census of 1886) leaves entirely out of

consideration many thousands of Indians living in the Indian Territory

and other portions of the Southwest, who drew an annual supply of meat

and robes from the chase of the buffalo, notwithstanding the fact that

their chief dependence was upon agriculture.

The Indians of what was once the buffalo country are not starving and

freezing, for the reason that the United States Government supplies them

regularly with beef and blankets in lieu of buffalo. Does any one

imagine that the Government could not have regulated the killing of

buffaloes, and thus maintained the supply, for far less money than it

now costs to feed and clothe those 54,758 Indians!

How is it with the Indians of the British Possessions to-day?

Prof. John Maconn writes as follows in his "Manitoba and the Great

Northwest," page 342:

"During the last three years [prior to 1883] the great herds have been

kept south of our boundary, and, as the result of this, our Indians have

been on the verge of starvation. When the hills were covered with

countless thousands [of buffaloes] in 1877, the Blackfeet were dying of

starvation in 1879."

During the winter of 1886-'87, destitution and actual starvation

prevailed to an alarming extent among certain tribes of Indians in the

Northwest Territory who once lived bountifully on the buffalo. A

terrible tale of suffering in the Athabasca and Peace River country has

recently (1888) come to the minister of the interior of the Canadian

government, in the form of a petition signed by the bishop of that

diocese, six clergymen and missionaries, and several justices of the

peace. It sets forth that "owing to the destruction of game, the

Indians, both last winter and last summer, have been in a state of

starvation. They are now in a complete state of destitution, and are

utterly unable to provide themselves with clothing, shelter, ammunition,

or food for the coming winter." The petition declares that on account of

starvation, and consequent cannibalism, a party of twenty-nine Cree

Indians was reduced to three in the winter of 1886.[77] Of the Fort

Chippewyan Indians, between twenty and thirty starved to death last

winter, and the death of many more was hastened by want of food and by

famine diseases. Many other Indians--Crees, Beavers, and Chippewyans--at

almost all points where there are missions or trading posts, would

certainly have starved to death but for the help given them by the

traders and missionaries at those places. It is now declared by the

signers of the memorial that scores of families, having lost their heads

by starvation, are now perfectly helpless, and during the coming winter

must either starve to death or eat one another unless help comes.

Heart-rending stories of suffering and cannibalism continue to come in

from what was once the buffalo plains.

[Note 77: It was the Cree Indians who used to practice impounding

buffaloes, slaughtering a penful of two hundred head at a time with most

fiendish glee, and leaving all but the very choicest of the meat to

putrefy.]

If ever thoughtless people were punished for their reckless

improvidence, the Indians and half-breeds of the Northwest Territory are

now paying the penalty for the wasteful slaughter of the buffalo a few

short years ago. The buffalo is his own avenger, to an extent his

remorseless slayers little dreamed he ever could be.

VII. PRESERVATION OF THE SPECIES FROM ABSOLUTE EXTINCTION.

There is reason to fear that unless the United States Government takes

the matter in hand and makes a special effort to prevent it, the

pure-blood bison will be lost irretrievably through mixture with

domestic breeds and through in-and-in breeding.

The fate of the Yellowstone Park herd is, to say the least, highly

uncertain. A distinguished Senator, who is deeply interested in

legislation for the protection of the National Park reservation, has

declared that the pressure from railway corporations, which are seeking

a foot-hold in the park, has become so great and so aggressive that he

fears the park will "eventually be broken up." In any such event, the

destruction of the herd of park buffaloes would be one of the very first

results. If the park is properly maintained, however, it is to be hoped

that the buffaloes now in it will remain there and increase

indefinitely.

As yet there are only two captive buffaloes in the possession of the

Government, viz, those in the Department of Living Animals of the

National Museum, presented by Hon. E. G. Blackford, of New York. The

buffaloes now in the Zoological Gardens of the country are but few in

number, and unless special pains be taken to prevent it, by means of

judicious exchanges, from time to time, these will rapidly deteriorate

in size, and within a comparatively short time run out entirely, through

continued in-and-in breeding. It is said that even the wild aurochs in

the forests of Lithuania are decreasing in size and, in number from this

cause.

With private owners of captive buffaloes, the temptations to produce

cross-breeds will be so great that it is more than likely the breeding

of pure-blood buffaloes will be neglected. Indeed, unless some stockman

like Mr. C. J. Jones takes particular pains to protect his full blood

buffaloes, and keep the breed absolutely pure, in twenty years there

will not be a pure-blood animal of that species on any stock farm in

this country. Under existing conditions, the constant tendency of the

numerous domestic forms is to absorb and utterly obliterate the few wild

ones.

If we may judge from the examples set as by European governments, it is

clearly the duty of our Government to act in this matter, and act

promptly, with a degree of liberality and promptness which can not be

otherwise than highly gratifying to every American citizen and every

friend of science throughout the world. The Fiftieth Congress, at its

last session, responded to the call made upon it, and voted $200,000 for

the establishment of a National Zoological Park in the District of

Columbia on a grand scale. One of the leading purposes it is destined to

serve is the preservation and breeding in comfortable, and so far as

space is concerned, luxurious captivity of a number of fine specimens of

every species of American quadruped now threatened with

extermination.[78]

[Note 78: It is indeed an unbounded satisfaction to be able to now

record the fact that this important task, in which every American

citizen has a personal interest, is actually to be undertaken. Last year

we could only way it ought to be undertaken. In its accomplishment, the

Government expects the co-operation of private individuals all over the

country in the form of gifts of desirable living animals, for no

government could afford to purchase all the animals necessary for a

great Zoological Garden, provide for their wants in a liberal way, and

yet give the public free access to the collection, as is to be given to

the National Zoological Park.]

At least eight or ten buffaloes of pure breed should be secured very

soon by the Zoological Park Commission, by gift if possible, and cared

for with special reference to keeping the breed absolutely pure, and

_keeping the herd from deteriorating and dying out through in-and-in

breeding_.

The total expense would be trifling in comparison with the importance of

the end to be gained, and in that way we might, in a small measure,

atone for our neglect of the means which would have protected the great

herds from extinction. In this way, by proper management, it will be not

only possible but easy to preserve fine living representatives of this

important species for centuries to come.

The result of continuing in-breeding is certain extinction. Its progress

may be so slow as to make no impression upon the mind of a herd-owner,

but the end is only a question of time. The fate of a majority of the

herds of British wild cattle (_Bos urus_) warn us what to expect with

the American bison under similar circumstances. Of the fourteen herds of

wild cattle which were in existence in England and Scotland during the

early part of the present century, direct descendants of the wild herds

found in Great Britain, nine have become totally extinct through in

breeding.

The five herds remaining are those at Somerford Park, Blickling Hall,

Woodbastwick, Chartley, and Chillingham.

A great deal has been said about the slaughter of buffaloes by foreign