San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-12-21
Doom OF the Buffalo.

elaughter OF tHo p"hio III hie iaeI
s~a;Iable retreats, and the time can
nv Nv be more than few years distant
n .ben the uncouth wild bovine who
Smishes meat, clothing and shelter
~ fine Indians, will be extinct in the
limited States. He will Gnger while
LANCER in British America and then
90 10 Join the mammthand the mas
sodon The Northern Pacific railroad
penetrated his best feeding grounds.
Hunters can leave the road at dozen
noints, equipped for slaughter on
Ioroe scale, and reach the herds by
few hours travel. There is no new
region less accessible to which the
animal can fall back and find subsis-
tsnce. The railroad is his death blow.
Last winterit was estimated that 1885,
400 buffalo were killed in the Yellow
stone Valley and the belt Of country
Wing between it and the Upper Mis-
souri. Old hunters with whom 1 have
talked say that five years will finish
the business. The facility with which
out6ts can be procured and the feed
inc grounds reached from the new
railroad towns and the comparatively
cheapness of transportation for the
hides to Eastern markets has caused
q great increase in the ranks of the
men who make buffalo killing trade
during the winter months. Large
numbers of the animals are killed by
the Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows, and
other Indian tribes, but the greatest
destruction is by, the skillflll white
men, who 60 at the work in an intel
Igent, systematic way for all the
money there is in it.
The Indians kill the year round for
meat, but the white hunters only go
out in the winter, when the hides have
a fur-ike quality and can be convert
ed into buffalo robes. A skin taken
in the summer is only good for leath-
en- A buffalo hunting outfit usually
consists of one OF two hunters, two
SINNERS to each hunter, two or three
teams and wagons, cook, and
stock of ammunition and provisions.
One man, usually practical hunter,
owns the outfit and pays the other
men a monthly salary. Arrived upon
the range a dug-out is constructed by
cutting an opening in a aside hill,
roofing it with hides or with .boughs
and dirt. This is the home of the
party. A sheet-iron stove or q fire
place of stones and mud warns the
burrow and hide serves for door.
The hunters scour the country on
their horses for signs of the proxim-
ity of a herd When they dis
cover such signs they do not gollop
on, find the herd, dash among them
and kill right and left. That is the
way buffalo hunting is done in the
pictures in theschool biographies, and
it is the way the Indians who are after
meat often hunt. The white man is
too smart. He wants to kill as many
animals as possible without stampeding
the herd. First he caches" his horse,
concealing him in "coolie" OF gully
1.-THE right word is the French cou.
lee, but Western usage has corrupted
it to COOLEY. If the buffalo should
get wind of the horse they would take
the alarm and make off. The hunter
then cautiously gets around to leeward
of the herd, getting their wind" as
he says. Then he approaches very
slowly, crawling over the ground and
lodging behind hummocks to escape
their notice. If they see him he lies
perfectly still in the grass, which his
brown canvas clothing resembles'
closely in color. Seeing nothing move
the wary animals soon think they
were mistaken in suspecting the pre-
sence of an enemy and go on graz
ing.
The hunter crawls up little closer
and SO works forward until he gets
a good position, in a depression of
the ground OF behind q little rise, for
shooting. Then he watches the herd
for few minutes, to learn which
animal is the leader. Every herd,
large OF small, has captain, who
directs its movements and to whom
all turn for guidance in moments OF
danger. The hunter must first kill
the leader OF he will probably not get
more than two or three skins out OF
the herd. When the buffalo boss IS
laid low the other animals gather
around him in confusion and amaze
ment, undecided what to do. An
other and another fall under the
hunters steady aim. The herd IS
terror-stricken. Some of the holder
animals bread away from the group,
and lool- oror,pd f-o1o whence the