Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-09-30
THE PRAIRIE BUFFALO.
The Gradual Extinction of an Animal that
Once KOnmed the Continent.

OhNO ASosAAhNN NuO COnhhNhhs
A paragraph in the st. Paul Pioneer
Press and Tribune announces the fact
that a firm in that city have in store
something like $4,000 buffalo robes,
which were preparing for the markets of
the United States. The traffic in buffalo
robes formerly passed through st. Paul
in bulk to Chicago, New York, and other
Eastern cities, where they were over
hauled and prepared for market.
Major +. II. Eastman is the collector
of robes for the st. Paul house, and he
secures his collections personally from
the original sources of supply, the prin-
cipal one being Fort Benton. From this
point the robes are shipped by boat to
Bismarck and. thence to st. Paul and
from st. Paul to Chicago and New
York.
The buffalo ranges are becoming an
nually more circumscribed, and their ul-
innate exhaustion is merely question
of time. Formerly the bison rosmed
all over the North American continent;
while now, according to Major Eastman,
this ami al can only be found in about
three localities. One herd ranges along
the headwaters of the Arkansas and
Platte rivers; smaller one browses
among the Big Horn mountains and the
valleys and plains in that region, while
the great mass make their home north
of the Missouri and spread themselves
to the Saskatchewan and westwardto to the
Rocky mountains. Formerly, too, it
was supposed that the buffalo spent the
winter on the plains of Texas and the
southwest, but latterly the buffalo have
changed their habits, and the immense
herds north of the Missouri stay there
all the year round. There seems to be
no difficulty in securing forage in the
north during the winter, for buffalo
killed in January are as fat as at any
other season, while the meat is much
better in winter than in summer. The
buffalo, with their feet and horns, scrape
the snow from the prairies and eat the
dried grass with a relish. Major East
man says that domestic cattle in Mon
tana lso run wild, and live through the
winter unprotected and uncared for, and
in the spring are found in comparatively
good condition.
The theory of those most familiar
with the subject is that the buffalo and
the Indian will perish together. Though
the Indian is in constant pursuit of this
noble game, the buffalo never avoids his
savage prosecutor. On the contrary, the
Indian will establish his camping ground
and then actually drive the buffalo to
within short distance Of his wigwam
before he kills him, thus avoiding any
extended transportation of the raw hides
to the place. where they are dressed by
the squaws. Now, on the other hand,
the buffalo, like the Indian, seems to
have an instructive aversion to the white
man, and when the immigrant wagon
and the railroad Car shall people the
West and Northwest, the buffalo will
seek new and more inaccessible fields
and, finally, when he is surrounded on
all sides, he will lie down and die, and
we'll have no more buffalo robes. Men
now living will remember when the Pa
cific slope was one vast buffalo range,
while to-day there is scarcely buffalo
to be seen west of the Rocky mountains.
But it is admitted that it may be long
while before the last buffalo shall pass in
his robe, for vast rarge Of country
spreads out between the Missouri river
and the Saskatchewan, which is natural
feeding ground for the buffalo, and there
is-no perceptible diminution of the pro-
digious herd that roams over this space.
There are collected annually at Fort
Benton alone about 10000 robes, near
ly all of which are taken from the great
northern herd, and yet the Indians and
traders find no greater difficulty now in
getting them from their original owners
than they did years ago.