Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-06-07
GREAT NORTHWEST.
Buffalo Hunting on the Western
a Plains.
SCENES IN WILD WESTERN LIFE.


ing of single trans-continental railroad
line, now rapidly progressing, is resulting
in the wholesale slaughter of the buffalo in
his last available retreats, and the time can
not now be more than few years distant
when the uncouth wild bovine who fur
nishes meat, clothing and shelter to the In
dians will be extinct in the United States.
He will linger while longer in British
America and then go to join the MANI
moth and the Mastodon. The Northern
pani6n Railrnad nAnntratss .his hAs+ faAd-
ing grounds. Hunters can leave the road
at dozen points equipped for slaughter on
a large 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 substance. The railroad is
his death blow. Last winter it was esti-
mated that 225,0OO buffalo were killed in
the Yellowstone Valley and the belt OF
country lying between it and the Upper
Missouri. Old hunters with whom nave
talked say that five years will finish the
business. The facility with which outfits
can be procured and the feeding grounds
reached from the new railroad towns, and
the comparative cheapness Of transports.
ton for the hides to the Eastern markets
has caused a great increase in the ranks OF
the men who make buffalo killing trade
during the winter months. Large uum.
bers of the animals are killed by the
Sioux, Cheyennes, Crows and other Indian
tribes, but the greatest destruction is by
skillful white men, who 60 at the work in
an intelligent, systematic way Tor all the
money there is in it.
BunalO Hunting.
The Indians kill the year round for meat,
but the white hunters only go out in the
winter, when the hides have a fur-like
quality and can be converted into Buffalo
robes. A skin taken in the summer is only
good for leather. A buffalo hunting outfit
usually consists of one or two hunters, two
skinners to each hunter, twoor three teams
and wagons, a cook and a stock Of ammu-
milton and provisions. One man, usually
a practical hunter, owns the ootfit and pays
the other men monthly salary. Arrived
upon the range dug-out is
constructed by cutting, an, open
ing in a side hill, roofing it with
hides or with boughs and dirt. This is the
home of the party. A sheetiron stove or
a fireplace of stones and mud warns the
u
hunters scour the country on their horses
for signs of the proximity OF herd. When
they discover such signs they do not gallop
on, find the herd, dash among them and
kill right aud left. That is the way buffalo
hunting is done in the pictures in the
school 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 coaches" his horse, conceal
ing him in ''coolic" or gully
1.-THE right word is the French coulee, but
If the buffaloes should get wind of the
horses they would take the alarm and make
of. The hunter then cautiously gets
around to leeward of the herd, getting
their wind, "as he says. Then heapproachess
notice. # thew see him he iies pfe9ffeStfy
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
presence Of all enemy and 60 on grazing.
Wholesale Slaughter.
The hunter crawls up little closer ana
so works forward until he gets good posi-
tion, in depression in the ground or be-
hind little rise, for shooting. Then he
watches the herd for a few minutes to learn
which animal is the leader. Every herd,
large or small, has captain: who directs ITS
and to whom all turn for guild
ance in moments Of danger. The hunter
must first kill the leader or he will proba-
bly not get more than one or two skins out
of the herd. When the buffalo boss is laid
low the other animals gather around him
in confusion and ama5ement, undecided
what to do. Another and another fall
under the hunters. steady aim.
The herd is terror stricken. Some
of the bolder animals break
away from the group and look around TO
see from whence the danger comes, but the
hunter lies down and ceases hring untli
thew return to their dying companions.
Then he fires away rapidly, perhaps get
fling in dozen effective shots before the
huddle of animals breaks up and the beasts
begin to run to and fro in fury OF rage
and fear. Before they find new leader
and stampede from the fatal shot, he will
probably "dowD" twenty or thirty OF
Them. He rides back to camp TO bring up
the wagons and the skinners, takes note OF
the direction the herd has pursued, and
the next day is on their track again. IL Is
not uncommon for single hunter to XIII
five hundred buffalo in few weeks. One
can see what devastation few hunting
parties will make in single month among
the few remaining herds.
The Indian Methed.
The Indians method OF killing buffalo IS
much more exciting and spectacular, out
much less destructive. 4 civil engineer
engaged in the railroad construction WORK,
at whose camp / stopped few nights ago,
gave me an account of an Indian hnnt ne
witnessed from the door OF his own log cab.
in one day last winter. 1t was the great
annual hunt Of the Crows. Inc lndians
had had their scouts out for weeks IN the
region north Of the Yellowstone. masSing
the scattered herds into one large body,
bvamethod similar to that used in rounding
mn cattle. Having got together hero OF
perhaps 5000 they begin to push than lot
ward Slowly toward the Yellowstone Val
lev. moi stampeding the animals, but form
ing a semi-circie OF horsemen around nearly
twenty miles of country, and showing
themselves here and there to keep the an
imals from straying of, and move them
| forward in the desired direction. Courier'
were sent to the Crow village, and soor
| the whole tribe was in motion for small
piece of bottom land on the river, hal
SURROUNDED by an amphitheater OF bills
Beyond the hilltops the squaws; childreI
and old men were stationed with some .
the ponies and ~';i re1 9 S,ansets. Th'
=, most skillful hunters posted themselves
mounted. by the river side. About n"o'
the great herd, urged on ~ rne Scout:
came thundering down the hills into th
bottom. Then the. people on the hill
closed up their line behind them and tn
hunters dashed into the herd and begal
the slaughter. Whenever the animal
would stampede towards the hills the.
would be driven back by the squaws way
| ing the red blankets. The hunters rode ,
and fro, with wonderful skill eyading tn
| charges OF wounded bulls and carrying o
the slaughter with little more trouble tha'
they would have had in drove OF cattle
When their ponies we're exhausted the
rode up the hills and got fresh ones fror
the squaws. After two or three hours
this Kind of work the chief gave o sigma
the line on the hills opened gap and tn
survivors of the herd were allowed I
escape. About five hundred animals wer
killed in ali The tepees we're set up an
| the village feasted Tor month, while u
souaws skinned the dead beasts, tame
the hides and dried the meat
The Buffalo Must Go.
Ifeel no sympathy with the sentimen
alisrn that laments the rapiderterminatio
OF the bu ffalo. A good, Fat OK is muc
more valuable animal any day than Il
( b;ooest buffalo tull The pastures whiC