The ancient range of the buffalo, according to history and tradition,
once extended from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, embracing
all that magnificent portion of North America known as the Mississippi
valley; from the frozen lakes above to the "Tierras Calientes" of
Mexico, far to the south.
It seems impossible, especially to those who have seen them, as
numerous, apparently, as the sands of the seashore, feeding on the
illimitable natural pastures of the great plains, that the buffalo
should have become almost extinct.
When I look back only twenty-five years, and recall the fact that they
roamed in immense numbers even then, as far east as Fort Harker, in
Central Kansas, a little more than two hundred miles from the Missouri
River, I ask myself, "Have they all disappeared?"
An idea may be formed of how many buffalo were killed from 1868 to
1881, a period of only thirteen years, during which time they were
indiscriminately slaughtered for their hides. In Kansas alone there was
paid out, between the dates specified, two million five hundred thousand
dollars for their bones gathered on the prairies, to be utilized by
the various carbon works of the country, principally in St. Louis. It
required about one hundred carcasses to make one ton of bones, the price
paid averaging eight dollars a ton; so the above-quoted enormous sum
represented the skeletons of over thirty-one millions of buffalo.[42]
These figures may appear preposterous to readers not familiar with the
great plains a third of a century ago; but to those who have seen the
prairie black from horizon to horizon with the shaggy monsters, they
are not so. In the autumn of 1868 I rode with Generals Sheridan, Custer,
Sully, and others, for three consecutive days, through one continuous
herd, which must have contained millions. In the spring of 1869 the
train on the Kansas Pacific Railroad was delayed at a point between
Forts Harker and Hays, from nine o'clock in the morning until five
in the afternoon, in consequence of the passage of an immense herd of
buffalo across the track. On each side of us, and to the west as far as
we could see, our vision was only limited by the extended horizon of the
flat prairie, and the whole vast area was black with the surging mass of
affrighted buffaloes as they rushed onward to the south.
In 1868 the Union Pacific Railroad and its branch in Kansas was nearly
completed across the plains to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains,
the western limit of the buffalo range, and that year witnessed the
beginning of the wholesale and wanton slaughter of the great ruminants,
which ended only with their practical extinction seventeen years
afterward. The causes of this hecatomb of animals on the great plains
were the incursion of regular hunters into the region, for the hides of
the buffalo, and the crowds of tourists who crossed the continent for
the mere pleasure and novelty of the trip. The latter class heartlessly
killed for the excitement of the new experience as they rode along in
the cars at a low rate of speed, often never touching a particle of the
flesh of their victims, or possessing themselves of a single robe. The
former, numbering hundreds of old frontiersmen, all expert shots, with
thousands of novices, the pioneer settlers on the public domain, just
opened under the various land laws, from beyond the Platte to far south
of the Arkansas, within transporting distance of two railroads, day
after day for years made it a lucrative business to kill for the robes
alone, a market for which had suddenly sprung up all over the country.
On either side of the track of the two lines of railroads running
through Kansas and Nebraska, within a relatively short distance and for
nearly their whole length, the most conspicuous objects in those
days were the desiccated carcasses of the noble beasts that had been
ruthlessly slaughtered by the thoughtless and excited passengers on
their way across the continent. On the open prairie, too, miles away
from the course of legitimate travel, in some places one could walk
all day on the dead bodies of the buffaloes killed by the hide-hunters,
without stepping off them to the ground.
The best robes, in their relation to thickness of fur and lustre, were
those taken during the winter months, particularly February, at which
period the maximum of density and beauty had been reached. Then,
notwithstanding the sudden and fitful variations of temperature incident
to our mid-continent climate, the old hunters were especially active,
and accepted unusual risks to procure as many of the coveted skins
as possible. A temporary camp would be established under the friendly
shelter of some timbered stream, from which the hunters would radiate
every morning, and return at night after an arduous day's work, to
smoke their pipes and relate their varied adventures around the fire of
blazing logs.
Sometimes when far away from camp a blizzard would come down from the
north in all its fury without ten minutes' warning, and in a few seconds
the air, full of blinding snow, precluded the possibility of finding
their shelter, an attempt at which would only result in an aimless
circular march on the prairie. On such occasions, to keep from perishing
by the intense cold, they would kill a buffalo, and, taking out its
viscera, creep inside the huge cavity, enough animal heat being retained
until the storm had sufficiently abated for them to proceed with safety
to their camp.
Early in March, 1867, a party of my friends, all old buffalo hunters,
were camped in Paradise valley, then a famous rendezvous of the animals
they were after. One day when out on the range stalking, and widely
separated from each other, a terrible blizzard came up. Three of the
hunters reached their camp without much difficulty, but he who was
farthest away was fairly caught in it, and night overtaking him, he was
compelled to resort to the method described in the preceding paragraph.
Luckily, he soon came up with a superannuated bull that had been
abandoned by the herd; so he killed him, took out his viscera and
crawled inside the empty carcass, where he lay comparatively comfortable
until morning broke, when the storm had passed over and the sun shone
brightly. But when he attempted to get out, he found himself a prisoner,
the immense ribs of the creature having frozen together, and locked him
up as tightly as if he were in a cell. Fortunately, his companions, who
were searching for him, and firing their rifles from time to time,
heard him yell in response to the discharge of their pieces, and thus
discovered and released him from the peculiar predicament into which he
had fallen.
At another time, several years before the acquisition of New Mexico by
the United States, two old trappers were far up on the Arkansas near the
Trail, in the foot-hills hunting buffalo, and they, as is generally the
case, became separated. In an hour or two one of them killed a fat young
cow, and, leaving his rifle on the ground, went up and commenced to skin
her. While busily engaged in his work, he suddenly heard right behind
him a suppressed snort, and looking around he saw to his dismay a
monstrous grizzly ambling along in that animal's characteristic gait,
within a few feet of him.
In front, only a few rods away, there happened to be a clump of scrubby
pines, and he incontinently made a break for them, climbing into the
tallest in less time than it takes to tell of it. The bear deliberately
ate a hearty meal off the juicy hams of the cow, so providentially
fallen in his way, and when he had satiated himself, instead of going
away, he quietly stretched himself alongside of the half-devoured
carcass, and went to sleep, keeping one eye open, however, on the
movements of the unlucky hunter whom he had corralled in the tree. In
the early evening his partner came to the spot, and killed the impudent
bear, that, being full of tender buffalo meat, was sluggish and unwary,
and thus became an easy victim to the unerring rifle; when the unwilling
prisoner came down from his perch in the pine, feeling sheepish enough.
The last time I saw him he told me he still had the bear's hide, which
he religiously preserved as a memento of his foolishness in separating
himself from his rifle, a thing he has never been guilty of before or
since.
Kit Carson, when with Fremont on his first exploring expedition, while
hunting for the command, at some point on the Arkansas, left a buffalo
which he had just killed and partly cut up, to pursue a large bull that
came rushing by him alone. He chased his game for nearly a quarter of a
mile, not being able, however, to gain on it rapidly, owing to the blown
condition of his horse. Coming up at length to the side of the fleeing
beast, Carson fired, but at the same instant his horse stepped into a
prairie-dog hole, fell down and threw Kit fully fifteen feet over his
head. The bullet struck the buffalo low under the shoulder, which only
served to enrage him so that the next moment the infuriated animal was
pursuing Kit, who, fortunately not much hurt, was able to run toward the
river. It was a race for life now, Carson using his nimble legs to
the utmost of their capacity, accelerated very much by the thundering,
bellowing bull bringing up the rear. For several minutes it was nip and
tuck which should reach the stream first, but Kit got there by a scratch
a little ahead. It was a big bend of the river, and the water was deep
under the bank, but it was paradise compared with the hades plunging at
his back; so Kit leaped into the water, trusting to Providence that the
bull would not follow. The trust was well placed, for the bull did
not continue the pursuit, but stood on the bank and shook his head
vehemently at the struggling hunter who had preferred deep waves to the
horns of a dilemma on shore.
Kit swam around for some time, carefully guarded by the bull, until
his position was observed by one of his companions, who attacked the
belligerent animal successfully with a forty-four slug, and then Kit
crawled out and--skinned the enemy!
He once killed five buffaloes during a single race, and used but four
balls, having dismounted and cut the bullet from the wound of the
fourth, and thus continued the chase. He it was, too, who established
his reputation as a famous hunter by shooting a buffalo cow during an
impetuous race down a steep hill, discharging his rifle just as the
animal was leaping on one of the low cedars peculiar to the region.
The ball struck a vital spot, and the dead cow remained in the jagged
branches. The Indians who were with him on that hunt looked upon the
circumstance as something beyond their comprehension, and insisted that
Kit should leave the carcass in the tree as "Big Medicine." Katzatoa
(Smoked Shield), a celebrated chief of the Kiowas many years ago,
who was over seven feet tall, never mounted a horse when hunting the
buffalo; he always ran after them on foot and killed them with his
lance.
Two Lance, another famous chief, could shoot an arrow entirely through a
buffalo while hunting on horseback. He accomplished this remarkable feat
in the presence of the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, who was under the
care of Buffalo Bill, near Fort Hays, Kansas.
During one of Fremont's expeditions, two of his chasseurs, named
Archambeaux and La Jeunesse,[43] had a curious adventure on a
buffalo-hunt. One of them was mounted on a mule, the other on a horse;
they came in sight of a large band of buffalo feeding upon the open
prairie about a mile distant. The mule was not fleet enough, and the
horse was too much fatigued with the day's journey, to justify a
race, and they concluded to approach the herd on foot. Dismounting and
securing the ends of their lariats in the ground, they made a slight
detour, to take advantage of the wind, and crept stealthily in the
direction of the game, approaching unperceived until within a few
hundred yards. Some old bulls forming the outer picket guard slowly
raised their heads and gazed long and dubiously at the strange objects,
when, discovering that the intruders were not wolves, but two hunters,
they gave a significant grunt, turned about as though on pivots, and in
less than no time the whole herd--bulls, cows, and calves--were making
the gravel fly over the prairie in fine style, leaving the hunters to
their discomfiture. They had scarcely recovered from their surprise,
when, to their great consternation, they beheld the whole company of
the monsters, numbering several thousand, suddenly shape their course
to where the riding animals were picketed. The charge of the stampeded
buffalo was a magnificent one; for the buffalo, mistaking the horse
and the mule for two of their own species, came down upon them like a
tornado. A small cloud of dust arose for a moment over the spot where
the hunter's animals had been left; the black mass moved on with
accelerated speed, and in a few seconds the horizon shut them all from
view. The horse and mule, with all their trappings, saddles, bridles,
and holsters, were never seen or heard of afterward.
Buffalo Bill, in less than eighteen months, while employed as hunter
of the construction company of the Kansas Pacific Railroad, in 1867-68,
killed nearly five thousand buffalo, which were consumed by the twelve
hundred men employed in track-laying. He tells in his autobiography
of the following remarkable experience he had at one time with his
favourite horse Brigham, on an impromptu buffalo hunt:--
One day we were pushed for horses to work on our scrapers,
so I hitched up Brigham, to see how he would work. He was
not much used to that kind of labour, and I was about giving
up the idea of making a work horse of him, when one of the
men called to me that there were some buffaloes coming over
the hill. As there had been no buffaloes seen anywhere
in the vicinity of the camp for several days, we had become
rather short of meat. I immediately told one of our men
to hitch his horses to a wagon and follow me, as I was going
out after the herd, and we would bring back some fresh meat
for supper. I had no saddle, as mine had been left at camp
a mile distant, so taking the harness from Brigham I mounted
him bareback, and started out after the game, being armed
with my celebrated buffalo killer Lucretia Borgia--a newly
improved breech-loading needle-gun, which I had obtained
from the government.
While I was riding toward the buffaloes, I observed five
horsemen coming out from the fort, who had evidently seen
the buffaloes from the post, and were going out for a chase.
They proved to be some newly arrived officers in that part
of the country, and when they came up closer I could see
by the shoulder-straps that the senior was a captain,
while the others were lieutenants.
"Hello! my friend," sang out the captain; "I see you are
after the same game we are."
"Yes, sir; I saw those buffaloes coming over the hill,
and as we were about out of fresh meat I thought I would
go and get some," said I.
They scanned my cheap-looking outfit pretty closely, and
as my horse was not very prepossessing in appearance, having
on only a blind bridle, and otherwise looking like a work
horse, they evidently considered me a green hand at hunting.
"Do you expect to catch those buffaloes on that Gothic
steed?" laughingly asked the captain.
"I hope so, by pushing on the reins hard enough," was
my reply.
"You'll never catch them in the world, my fine fellow,"
said the captain. "It requires a fast horse to overtake
the animals on the prairie."
"Does it?" asked I, as if I didn't know it.
"Yes; but come along with us, as we are going to kill them
more for pleasure than anything else. All we want are the
tongues and a piece of tenderloin, and you may have all
that is left," said the generous man.
"I am much obliged to you, captain, and will follow you,"
I replied.
There were eleven buffaloes in the herd, and they were not
more than a mile ahead of us. The officers dashed on as if
they had a sure thing on killing them all before I could
come up with them; but I had noticed that the herd was
making toward the creek for water, and as I knew buffalo
nature, I was perfectly aware that it would be difficult
to turn them from their direct course. Thereupon, I started
toward the creek to head them off, while the officers
came up in the rear and gave chase.
The buffaloes came rushing past me not a hundred yards
distant, with the officers about three hundred yards in
the rear. Now, thought I, is the time to "get my work in,"
as they say; and I pulled off the blind bridle from my
horse, who knew as well as I did that we were out after
buffaloes, as he was a trained hunter. The moment the
bridle was off he started at the top of his speed, running
in ahead of the officers, and with a few jumps he brought me
alongside the rear buffalo. Raising old Lucretia Borgia
to my shoulder, I fired, and killed the animal at the
first shot. My horse then carried me alongside the next
one, not ten feet away, and I dropped him at the next fire.
As soon as one of the buffalo would fall, Brigham would
take me so close to the next that I could almost touch it
with my gun. In this manner I killed the eleven buffaloes
with twelve shots; and as the last animal dropped, my horse
stopped. I jumped off to the ground, knowing that he would
not leave me--it must be remembered that I had been riding
him without bridle, reins, or saddle--and, turning around
as the party of astonished officers rode up, I said to them:--
"Now, gentlemen, allow me to present to you all the tongues
and tenderloins you wish from these buffaloes."
Captain Graham, for such I soon learned was his name,
replied: "Well, I never saw the like before. Who under
the sun are you, anyhow?"
"My name is Cody," said I.
Captain Graham, who was considerable of a horseman,
greatly admired Brigham, and said: "That horse of yours
has running points."
"Yes, sir; he has not only got the points, he is a runner
and knows how to use the points," said I.
"So I noticed," said the captain.
They all finally dismounted, and we continued chatting
for some little time upon the different subjects of horses,
buffaloes, hunting, and Indians. They felt a little sore
at not getting a single shot at the buffaloes; but the way
I had killed them, they said, amply repaid them for their
disappointment. They had read of such feats in books,
but this was the first time they had ever seen anything
of the kind with their own eyes. It was the first time,
also, that they had ever witnessed or heard of a white man
running buffaloes on horseback without a saddle or bridle.
I told them that Brigham knew nearly as much about the
business as I did, and if I had twenty bridles they would
have been of no use to me, as he understood everything,
and all that he expected of me was to do the shooting.
It is a fact that Brigham would stop if a buffalo did not
fall at the first fire, so as to give me a second chance;
but if I did not kill the animal then, he would go on, as
if to say, "You are no good, and I will not fool away my
time by giving you more than two shots." Brigham was the
best horse I ever saw or owned for buffalo chasing.
At one time an old, experienced buffalo hunter was following at the
heels of a small herd with that reckless rush to which in the excitement
of the chase men abandon themselves, when a great bull just in front of
him tumbled into a ravine. The rider's horse fell also, throwing the old
hunter over his head sprawling, but with strange accuracy right between
the bull's horns! The first to recover from the terrible shock and to
regain his legs was the horse, which ran off with wonderful alacrity
several miles before he stopped. Next the bull rose, and shook himself
with an astonished air, as if he would like to know "how that was done?"
The hunter was on the great brute's back, who, perhaps, took the affair
as a good practical joke; but he was soon pitched to the ground, as the
buffalo commenced to jump "stiff-legged," and the latter, giving the
hunter one lingering look, which he long remembered, with remarkable
good nature ran off to join his companions. Had the bull been wounded,
the rider would have been killed, as the then enraged animal would have
gored and trampled him to death.
An officer of the old regular army told me many years ago that in
crossing the plains a herd of buffalo were fired at by a twelve-pound
howitzer, the ball of which wounded and stunned an immense bull.
Nevertheless, heedless of a hundred shots that had been fired at him,
and of a bulldog belonging to one of the officers, which had fastened
himself to his lips, the enraged beast charged upon the whole troop of
dragoons, and tossed one of the horses like a feather. Bull, horse, and
rider all fell in a heap. Before the dust cleared away, the trooper,
who had hung for a moment to one of the bull's horns by his waistband,
crawled out safe, while the horse got a ball from a rifle through his
neck while in the air and two great rips in his flank from the bull.
In 1839 Kit Carson and Hobbs were trapping with a party on the Arkansas
River, not far from Bent's Fort. Among the trappers was a green
Irishman, named O'Neil, who was quite anxious to become proficient in
hunting, and it was not long before he received his first lesson. Every
man who went out of camp after game was expected to bring in "meat" of
some kind. O'Neil said that he would agree to the terms, and was ready
one evening to start out on his first hunt alone. He picked up his rifle
and stalked after a small herd of buffalo in plain sight on the prairie
not more than five or six hundred yards from camp.
All the trappers who were not engaged in setting their traps or cooking
supper were watching O'Neil. Presently they heard the report of his
rifle, and shortly after he came running into camp, bareheaded, without
his gun, and with a buffalo bull close upon his heels; both going at
full speed, and the Irishman shouting like a madman,--
"Here we come, by jabers. Stop us! For the love of God, stop us!"
Just as they came in among the tents, with the bull not more than six
feet in the rear of O'Neil, who was frightened out of his wits and
puffing like a locomotive, his foot caught in a tent-rope, and over
he went into a puddle of water head foremost, and in his fall capsized
several camp-kettles, some of which contained the trappers' supper. But
the buffalo did not escape so easily; for Hobbs and Kit Carson jumped
for their rifles, and dropped the animal before he had done any further
damage.
The whole outfit laughed heartily at O'Neil when he got up out of the
water, for a party of old trappers would show no mercy to any of their
companions who met with a mishap of that character; but as he stood
there with dripping clothes and face covered with mud, his mother-wit
came to his relief and he declared he had accomplished the hunter's
task: "For sure," said he, "haven't I fetched the mate into camp? and
there was no bargain whether it should be dead or alive!"
Upon Kit's asking O'Neil where his gun was,--
"Sure," said he, "that's more than I can tell you."
Next morning Carson and Hobbs took up O'Neil's tracks and the buffalo's,
and after hunting an hour or so found the Irishman's rifle, though he
had little use for it afterward, as he preferred to cook and help around
camp rather than expose his precious life fighting buffaloes.
A great herd of buffaloes on the plains in the early days, when one
could approach near enough without disturbing it to quietly watch its
organization and the apparent discipline which its leaders seemed to
exact, was a very curious sight. Among the striking features of the
spectacle was the apparently uniform manner in which the immense mass of
shaggy animals moved; there was constancy of action indicating a degree
of intelligence to be found only in the most intelligent of the brute
creation. Frequently the single herd was broken up into many smaller
ones, that travelled relatively close together, each led by an
independent master. Perhaps a few rods only marked the dividing-line
between them, but it was always unmistakably plain, and each moved
synchronously in the direction in which all were going.
The leadership of a herd was attained only by hard struggles for the
place; once reached, however, the victor was immediately recognized, and
kept his authority until some new aspirant overcame him, or he became
superannuated and was driven out of the herd to meet his inevitable
fate, a prey to those ghouls of the desert, the gray wolves.
In the event of a stampede, every animal of the separate, yet
consolidated, herds rushed off together, as if they had all gone mad at
once; for the buffalo, like the Texas steer, mule, or domestic
horse, stampedes on the slightest provocation; frequently without any
assignable cause. The simplest affair, sometimes, will start the whole
herd; a prairie-dog barking at the entrance to his burrow, a shadow of
one of themselves or that of a passing cloud, is sufficient to make them
run for miles as if a real and dangerous enemy were at their heels.
Like an army, a herd of buffaloes put out vedettes to give the alarm in
case anything beyond the ordinary occurred. These sentinels were always
to be seen in groups of four, five, or even six, at some distance from
the main body. When they perceived something approaching that the herd
should beware of or get away from, they started on a run directly for
the centre of the great mass of their peacefully grazing congeners.
Meanwhile, the young bulls were on duty as sentinels on the edge of
the main herd watching the vedettes; the moment the latter made for the
centre, the former raised their heads, and in the peculiar manner of
their species gazed all around and sniffed the air as if they could
smell both the direction and source of the impending danger. Should
there be something which their instinct told them to guard against, the
leader took his position in front, the cows and calves crowded in the
centre, while the rest of the males gathered on the flanks and in the
rear, indicating a gallantry that might be emulated at times by the
genus homo.
Generally buffalo went to their drinking-places but once a day, and that
late in the afternoon. Then they ambled along, following each other in
single file, which accounts for the many trails on the plains, always
ending at some stream or lake. They frequently travelled twenty or
thirty miles for water, so the trails leading to it were often worn to
the depth of a foot or more.
That curious depression so frequently seen on the great plains, called
a buffalo-wallow, is caused in this wise: The huge animals paw and lick
the salty, alkaline earth, and when once the sod is broken the loose
dirt drifts away under the constant action of the wind. Then, year
after year, through more pawing, licking, rolling, and wallowing by
the animals, the wind wafts more of the soil away, and soon there is a
considerable hole in the prairie.
Many an old trapper and hunter's life has been saved by following a
buffalo-trail when he was suffering from thirst. The buffalo-wallows
retain usually a great quantity of water, and they have often saved the
lives of whole companies of cavalry, both men and horses.
There was, however, a stranger and more wonderful spectacle to be seen
every recurring spring during the reign of the buffalo, soon after
the grass had started. There were circles trodden bare on the plains,
thousands, yes, millions of them, which the early travellers, who did
not divine their cause, called fairy-rings. From the first of April
until the middle of May was the wet season; you could depend upon its
recurrence almost as certainly as on the sun and moon rising at their
proper time. This was also the calving period of the buffalo, as
they, unlike our domestic cattle, only rutted during a single month;
consequently, the cows all calved during a certain time; this was the
wet month, and as there were a great many gray wolves that roamed singly
and in immense packs over the whole prairie region, the bulls, in their
regular beats, kept guard over the cows while in the act of parturition,
and drove the wolves away, walking in a ring around the females at a
short distance, and thus forming the curious circles.
In every herd at each recurring season there were always ambitious young
bulls that came to their majority, so to speak, and these were ever
ready to test their claims for the leadership, so that it may be safely
stated that a month rarely passed without a bloody battle between them
for the supremacy; though, strangely enough, the struggle scarcely ever
resulted in the death of either combatant.
Perhaps there is no animal in which maternal love is so wonderfully
developed as the buffalo cow; she is as dangerous with a calf by her
side as a she-grizzly with cubs, as all old mountaineers know.
The buffalo bull that has outlived his usefulness is one of the most
pitiable objects in the whole range of natural history. Old age has
probably been decided in the economy of buffalo life as the unpardonable
sin. Abandoned to his fate, he may be discovered, in his dreary
isolation, near some stream or lake, where it does not tax him too
severely to find good grass; for he is now feeble, and exertion an
impossibility. In this new stage of his existence he seems to have
completely lost his courage. Frightened at his own shadow, or the
rustling of a leaf, he is the very incarnation of nervousness and
suspicion. Gregarious in his habits from birth, solitude, foreign to
his whole nature, has changed him into a new creature; and his inherent
terror of the most trivial things is intensified to such a degree
that if a man were compelled to undergo such constant alarm, it would
probably drive him insane in less than a week. Nobody ever saw one of
these miserable and helplessly forlorn creatures dying a natural death,
or ever heard of such an occurrence. The cowardly coyote and the gray
wolf had already marked him for their own; and they rarely missed their
calculations.
Riding suddenly to the top of a divide once with a party of friends in
1866, we saw standing below us in the valley an old buffalo bull, the
very picture of despair. Surrounding him were seven gray wolves in the
act of challenging him to mortal combat. The poor beast, undoubtedly
realizing the utter hopelessness of his situation, had determined to
die game. His great shaggy head, filled with burrs, was lowered to the
ground as he confronted his would-be executioners; his tongue, black and
parched, lolled out of his mouth, and he gave utterance at intervals to
a suppressed roar.
The wolves were sitting on their haunches in a semi-circle immediately
in front of the tortured beast, and every time that the fear-stricken
buffalo would give vent to his hoarsely modulated groan, the wolves
howled in concert in most mournful cadence.
After contemplating his antagonists for a few moments, the bull made a
dash at the nearest wolf, tumbling him howling over the silent prairie;
but while this diversion was going on in front, the remainder of the
pack started for his hind legs, to hamstring him. Upon this the poor
brute turned to the point of attack only to receive a repetition of it
in the same vulnerable place by the wolves, who had as quickly turned
also and fastened themselves on his heels again. His hind quarters
now streamed with blood and he began to show signs of great physical
weakness. He did not dare to lie down; that would have been instantly
fatal. By this time he had killed three of the wolves or so maimed them
that they were entirely out of the fight.
At this juncture the suffering animal was mercifully shot, and the
wolves allowed to batten on his thin and tough carcass.
Often there are serious results growing out of a stampede, either
by mules or a herd of buffalo. A portion of the Fifth United States
Infantry had a narrow escape from a buffalo stampede on the Old Trail,
in the early summer of 1866. General George A. Sykes, who commanded the
Division of Regulars in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War,
was ordered to join his regiment, stationed in New Mexico, and was
conducting a body of recruits, with their complement of officers,
to fill up the decimated ranks of the army stationed at the various
military posts, in far-off Greaser Land.
The command numbered nearly eight hundred, including the subaltern
officers. These recruits, or the majority of them at least, were
recruits in name only; they had seen service in many a hard campaign of
the Rebellion. Some, of course, were beardless youths just out of their
teens, full of that martial ardour which induced so many young men of
the nation to follow the drum on the remote plains and in the fastnesses
of the Rocky Mountains, where the wily savages still held almost
undisputed sway, and were a constant menace to the pioneer settlers.
One morning, when the command had just settled itself in careless repose
on the short grass of the apparently interminable prairie at the first
halt of the day's march, a short distance beyond Fort Larned, a strange
noise, like the low muttering of thunder below the horizon, greeted the
ears of the little army.
All were startled by the ominous sound, unlike anything they had heard
before on their dreary tour. The general ordered his scouts out to learn
the cause; could it be Indians? Every eye was strained for something out
of the ordinary. Even the horses of the officers and the mules of the
supply-train were infected by something that seemed impending; they grew
restless, stamped the earth, and vainly essayed to stampede, but were
prevented by their hobbles and picket-pins.
Presently one of the scouts returned from over the divide, and reported
to the general that an immense herd of buffalo was tearing down toward
the Trail, and from the great clouds of dust they raised, which obscured
the horizon, there must have been ten thousand of them. The roar wafted
to the command, and which seemed so mysterious, was made by their hoofs
as they rattled over the dry prairie.
The sound increased in volume rapidly, and soon a black, surging mass
was discovered bearing right down on the Trail. Behind it could be seen
a cavalcade of about five hundred Cheyennes, Comanches, and Kiowas, who
had maddened the shaggy brutes, hoping to capture the train without an
attack by forcing the frightened animals to overrun the command.
Luckily, something caused the herd to open before it reached the foot
of the divide, and it passed in two masses, leaving the command between,
not two hundred feet from either division of the infuriated beasts.
The rage of the savages was evident when they saw that their attempt to
annihilate the troops had failed, and they rode off sullenly into the
sand hills, as the number of soldiers was too great for them to think of
charging.
Cody tells of a buffalo stampede which he witnessed in his youth on
the plains, when he was a wagon-master. The caravan was on its way
with government stores for the military posts in the mountains, and the
wagons were hauled by oxen.
He says: The country was alive with buffalo, and besides killing
quite a number we had a rare day for sport. One morning
we pulled out of camp, and the train was strung out to a
considerable length along the Trail, which ran near the foot
of the sand hills, two miles from the river. Between the
road and the river we saw a large herd of buffalo grazing
quietly, they having been down to the stream to drink.
Just at this time we observed a party of returning
Californians coming from the west. They, too, noticed
the buffalo herd, and in another moment they were dashing
down upon them, urging their horses to their greatest speed.
The buffalo herd stampeded at once, and broke down the sides
of the hills; so hotly were they pursued by the hunters
that about five hundred of them rushed pell-mell through
our caravan, frightening both men and oxen. Some of the
wagons were turned clear around and many of the terrified
oxen attempted to run to the hills with the heavy wagons
attached to them. Others were turned around so short
that they broke the tongues off. Nearly all the teams
got entangled in their gearing and became wild and unruly,
so that the perplexed drivers were unable to manage them.
The buffalo, the cattle, and the men were soon running
in every direction, and the excitement upset everybody
and everything. Many of the oxen broke their yokes and
stampeded. One big buffalo bull became entangled in one
of the heavy wagon-chains, and it is a fact that in his
desperate efforts to free himself, he not only snapped
the strong chain in two, but broke the ox-yoke to which
it was attached, and the last seen of him he was running
toward the hills with it hanging from his horns.
Stampedes were a great source of profit to the Indians of the plains.
The Comanches were particularly expert and daring in this kind of
robbery. They even trained their horses to run from one point to another
in expectation of the coming of the trains. When a camp was made that
was nearly in range, they turned their trained animals loose, which at
once flew across the prairie, passing through the herd and penetrating
the very corrals of their victims. All of the picketed horses and mules
would endeavour to follow these decoys, and were invariably led right
into the haunts of the Indians, who easily secured them. Young horses
and mules were easily frightened; and, in the confusion which generally
ensued, great injury was frequently done to the runaways themselves.
At times when the herd was very large, the horses scattered over the
prairie and were irrevocably lost; and such as did not become wild fell
a prey to the wolves. That fate was very frequently the lot of stampeded
horses bred in the States, they not having been trained by a prairie
life to take care of themselves. Instead of stopping and bravely
fighting off the blood-thirsty beasts, they would run. Then the whole
pack were sure to leave the bolder animals and make for the runaways,
which they seldom failed to overtake and despatch.
On the Old Trail some years ago one of these stampedes occurred of a
band of government horses, in which were several valuable animals. It
was attended, however, with very little loss, through the courage and
great exertion of the men who had them in charge; many were recovered,
but none without having sustained injuries.
Hon. R. M. Wright, of Dodge City, Kansas, one of the pioneers in the
days of the Santa Fe trade, and in the settlement of the State, has had
many exciting experiences both with the savages of the great plains, and
the buffalo. In relation to the habits of the latter, no man is better
qualified to speak.
He was once owner of Fort Aubrey, a celebrated point on the Trail, but
was compelled to abandon it on account of constant persecution by the
Indians, or rather he was ordered to do so by the military authorities.
While occupying the once famous landmark, in connection with others, had
a contract to furnish hay to the government at Fort Lyon, seventy-five
miles further west. His journal, which he kindly placed at my disposal,
says:
While we were preparing to commence the work, a vast herd
of buffalo stampeded through our range one night, and
took off with them about half of our work cattle. The next
day a stage-driver and conductor on the Overland Route told
us they had seen a number of our oxen twenty-five miles east
of Aubrey, and this information gave me an idea in which
direction to hunt for the missing beasts. I immediately
started after them, while my partner took those that
remained and a few wagons and left with them for Fort Lyon.
Let me explain here that while the Indians were supposed to
be peaceable, small war-parties of young men, who could not
be controlled by their chiefs, were continually committing
depredations, and the main body of savages themselves were
very uneasy, and might be expected to break out any day.
In consequence of this unsettled state of affairs, there
had been a brisk movement among the United States troops
stationed at the various military posts, a large number of
whom were believed to be on the road from Denver to Fort Lyon.
I filled my saddle-bags with jerked buffalo, hardtack and
ground coffee, and took with me a belt of cartridges,
my rifle and six-shooter, a field-glass and my blankets,
prepared for any emergency. The first day out, I found a
few of the lost cattle, and placed them on the river-bottom,
which I continued to do as fast as I recovered them, for a
distance of about eighty-five miles down the Arkansas.
There I met a wagon-train, the drivers of which told me
that I would find several more of my oxen with a train
that had arrived at the Cimarron crossing the day before.
I came up with this train in eight or ten hours' travel
south of the river, got my cattle, and started next morning
for home.
I picked up those I had left on the Arkansas as I went
along, and after having made a very hard day's travel,
about sundown I concluded I would go into camp. I had
only fairly halted when the oxen began to drop down,
so completely tired out were they, as I believed. Just as
it was growing dark, I happened to look toward the west,
and I saw several fires on a big island, near what was
called "The Lone Tree," about a mile from where I had
determined to remain for the night.
Thinking the fires were those of the soldiers that I had
heard were on the road from Denver, and anticipating and
longing for a cup of good coffee, as I had had none for
five days, knowing, too, that the troops would be full of
news, I felt good and determined to go over to their camp.
The Arkansas was low, but the banks steep, with high,
rank grass growing to the very water's edge. I found
a buffalo-trail cut through the deep bank, narrow and
precipitous, and down this I went, arriving in a short time
within a little distance of my supposed soldiers' camp.
When I had reached the middle of another deep cut in the
bank, I looked across to the island, and, great Caesar!
saw a hundred little fires, around which an aggregation
of a thousand Indians were huddled!
I slid backwards off my horse, and by dint of great exertion,
worked him up the river-bank as quietly and quickly as
possible, then led him gently away out on the prairie.
My first impulse was not to go back to the cattle; but as
we needed them very badly, I concluded to return, put them
all on their feet, and light out mighty lively, without
making any noise. I started them, and, oh dear! I was
afraid to tread upon a weed, lest it would snap and bring
the Indians down on my trail. Until I had put several
miles between them and me, I could not rest easy for
a moment. Tired as I was, tired as were both my horse
and the cattle, I drove them twenty-five miles before
I halted. Then daylight was upon me. I was at what is
known as Chouteau's Island, a once famous place in the
days of the Old Santa Fe Trail.
Of course, I had to let the oxen and my horse rest and fill
themselves until the afternoon, and I lay down, and fell
asleep, but did not sleep long, as I thought it dangerous
to remain too near the cattle. I rose and walked up a big,
dry sand creek that opened into the river, and after I had
ascended it for a couple of miles, found the banks very
steep; in fact, they rose to a height of eighteen or twenty
feet, and were sharply cut up by narrow trails made by
the buffalo.
The whole face of the earth was covered by buffalo, and
they were slowly grazing toward the Arkansas. All at once
they became frightened at something, and stampeded pell-mell
toward the very spot on which I stood. I quickly ran into
one of the precipitous little paths and up on the prairie,
to see what had scared them. They were making the ground
fairly tremble as their mighty multitude came rushing on
at full speed, the sound of their hoofs resembling thunder,
but in a continuous peal. It appeared to me that they must
sweep everything in their path, and for my own preservation
I rushed under the creek-bank, but on they came like a
tornado, with one old bull in the lead. He held up a second
to descend the narrow trail, and when he had got about
halfway down I let him have it; I was only a few steps from
him and over he tumbled. I don't know why I killed him;
out of pure wantonness, I expect, or perhaps I thought
it would frighten the others back. Not so, however;
they only quickened their pace, and came dashing down in
great numbers. Dozens of them stumbled and fell over the
dead bull; others fell over them. The top of the bank
was fairly swarming with them; they leaped, pitched, and
rolled down. I crouched as close to the bank as possible,
but many of them just grazed my head, knocking the sand
and gravel in great streams down my neck; indeed I was
half buried before the herd had passed over. That old bull
was the last buffalo I ever shot wantonly, excepting once,
from an ambulance while riding on the Old Trail, to please
a distinguished Englishman, who had never seen one shot;
then I did it only after his most earnest persuasion.
One day a stage-driver named Frank Harris and myself started
out after buffalo; they were scarce, for a wonder, and
we were very hungry for fresh meat. The day was fine and
we rode a long way, expecting sooner or later a bunch would
jump up, but in the afternoon, having seen none, we gave
it up and started for the ranch. Of course, we didn't
care to save our ammunition, so shot it away at everything
in sight, skunks, rattlesnakes, prairie-dogs, and gophers,
until we had only a few loads left. Suddenly an old bull
jumped up that had been lying down in one of those
sugar-loaf-shaped sand hills, whose tops are hollowed out
by the action of the wind. Harris emptied his revolver
into him, and so did I; but the old fellow sullenly stood
still there on top of the sand hill, bleeding profusely
at the nose, and yet absolutely refusing to die, although
he would repeatedly stagger and nearly tumble over.
It was getting late and we couldn't wait on him, so Harris
said: "I will dismount, creep up behind him, and cut his
hamstrings with my butcher-knife." The bull having now
lain down, Harris commenced operations, but his movement
seemed to infuse new life into the old fellow; he jumped
to his feet, his head lowered in the attitude of fight,
and away he went around the outside of the top of the
sand hill! It was a perfect circus with one ring; Harris,
who was a tall, lanky fellow, took hold of the enraged
animal's tail as he rose to his feet, and in a moment his
legs were flying higher than his head, but he did not dare
let go of his hold on the bull's tail, and around and
around they went; it was his only show for life. I could
not assist him a particle, but had to sit and hold his horse,
and be judge of the fight. I really thought that old bull
would never weaken. Finally, however, the "ring" performance
began to show symptoms of fatigue; slower and slower the
actions of the bull grew, and at last Harris succeeded
in cutting his hamstrings and the poor beast went down.
Harris said afterward, when the danger was all over, that
the only thing he feared was that perhaps the bull's tail
would pull out, and if it did, he was well aware that he
was a goner. We brought his tongue, hump, and a hindquarter
to the ranch with us, and had a glorious feast and a big
laugh that night with the boys over the ridiculous adventure.
General Richard Irving Dodge, United States army, in his work on the big
game of America, says:
It is almost impossible for a civilized being to realize
the value to the plains Indian of the buffalo. It furnished
him with home, food, clothing, bedding, horse equipment--
almost everything.
From 1869 to 1873 I was stationed at various posts along
the Arkansas River. Early in spring, as soon as the dry
and apparently desert prairie had begun to change its coat
of dingy brown to one of palest green, the horizon would
begin to be dotted with buffalo, single or in groups of two
or three, forerunners of the coming herd. Thick and thicker,
and in large groups they come, until by the time the grass
is well up, the whole vast landscape appears a mass of
buffalo, some individuals feeding, others lying down, but
the herd slowly moving to the northward; of their number,
it was impossible to form a conjecture.
Determined as they are to pursue their journey northward,
yet they are exceedingly cautious and timid about it,
and on any alarm rush to the southward with all speed,
until that alarm is dissipated. Especially is this the case
when any unusual object appears in their rear, and so
utterly regardless of consequences are they, that an old
plainsman will not risk a wagon-train in such a herd,
where rising ground will permit those in front to get
a good view of their rear.
In May, 1871, I drove in a buggy from old Fort Zarah
to Fort Larned, on the Arkansas River. The distance is
thirty-four miles. At least twenty-five miles of that
distance was through an immense herd. The whole country
was one mass of buffalo, apparently, and it was only when
actually among them, that the seemingly solid body was
seen to be an agglomeration of countless herds of from
fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the surrounding
herds by a greater or less space, but still separated.
The road ran along the broad valley of the Arkansas.
Some miles from Zarah a low line of hills rises from the
plain on the right, gradually increasing in height and
approaching road and river, until they culminate in
Pawnee Rock.
So long as I was in the broad, level valley, the herds
sullenly got out of my way, and, turning, stared stupidly
at me, some within thirty or forty yards. When, however,
I had reached a point where the hills were no more than
a mile from the road, the buffalo on the crests, seeing an
unusual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant,
then started at full speed toward me, stampeding and
bringing with them the numberless herds through which
they passed, and pouring down on me, no longer separated
but compacted into one immense mass of plunging animals,
mad with fright, irresistible as an avalanche.
The situation was by no means pleasant. There was but
one hope of escape. My horse was, fortunately, a quiet
old beast, that had rushed with me into many a herd, and
been in at the death of many a buffalo. Reining him up,
I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards,
then, with a few well-directed shots, dropped some of
the leaders, split the herd and sent it off in two streams
to my right and left. When all had passed me, they stopped,
apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within
reach of my rifle. After my servant had cut out the
tongues of the fallen, I proceeded on my journey, only to
have a similar experience within a mile or two, and this
occurred so often that I reached Fort Larned with twenty-six
tongues, representing the greatest number of buffalo that
I can blame myself with having murdered in one day.
Some years, as in 1871, the buffalo appeared to move
northward in one immense column, oftentimes from twenty
to fifty miles in width, and of unknown depth from front
to rear. Other years the northward journey was made
in several parallel columns moving at the same rate and
with their numerous flankers covering a width of a hundred
or more miles.
When the food in one locality fails, they go to another,
and toward fall, when the grass of the high prairies
becomes parched by the heat and drought, they gradually
work their way back to the south, concentrating on the
rich pastures of Texas and the Indian Territory, whence,
the same instinct acting on all, they are ready to start
together again on their northward march as soon as spring
starts the grass.
Old plainsmen and the Indians aver that the buffalo never
return south; that each year's herd was composed of animals
which had never made the journey before, and would never
make it again. All admit the northern migration, that
being too pronounced for any one to dispute, but refuse
to admit the southern migration. Thousands of young calves
were caught and killed every spring that were produced
during this migration, and accompanied the herd northward;
but because the buffalo did not return south in one vast
body as they went north, it was stoutly maintained that
they did not go south at all. The plainsman could give
no reasonable hypothesis of his "No-return theory" on which
to base the origin of the vast herds which yearly made
their march northward. The Indian was, however, equal
to the occasion. Every plains Indian firmly believed that
the buffalo were produced in countless numbers in a country
under ground; that every spring the surplus swarmed,
like bees from a hive, out of the immense cave-like opening
in the region of the great Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain
of Texas. In 1879 Stone Calf, a celebrated chief, assured
me that he knew exactly where the caves were, though he had
never seen them; that the good God had provided this
means for the constant supply of food for the Indian, and
however recklessly the white men might slaughter, they could
never exterminate them. When last I saw him, the old man
was beginning to waver in this belief, and feared that
the "Bad God" had shut the entrances, and that his tribe
must starve.
The old trappers and plainsmen themselves, even as early as the
beginning of the Santa Fe trade, noticed the gradual disappearance of
the buffalo, while they still existed in countless numbers. One veteran
French Canadian, an employee of the American Fur Company, way back in
the early '30's, used to mourn thus: "Mais, sacre! les Amarican, dey go
to de Missouri frontier, de buffalo he ron to de montaigne; de trappaire
wid his fusil, he follow to de Bayou Salade, he ron again. Dans les
Montaignes Espagnol, bang! bang! toute la journee, toute la journee, go
de sacre voleurs. De bison he leave, parceque les fusils scare im vara
moche, ici la de sem-sacre!"