Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1884-07-11
THE SLAUGHTER OF BUFFALOES.
Rapid Disappearance OF americas
Bison, Who Will Not Shun Bullets

In going down the Yellowstone and
across the vast region lying between
Glendlve and Mandan, one is struck
with the evident scarcity of game.
This famous region, where, two or three
years ago, herds of buffalo, antelope
and deer We're to be seen on every side,
is now, to all appearance, stripped of
its game. For the entire distance
from Livingstone to Mandan l only saw
two or three small bands of antelope,
and not sign of deer or buffalo. The
fact is, the slaughter of buffalo and deer
has been immense for the past two
years, and particularly of the former.
1t is estimated that during the past
winter there have been a thousand
hunters engaged in the business of
slaughtering buffalo along the line of
the Northern Pacific, between Mandan
and Livingstone.
An eagle-eyed hunter got on the train
at Glendive and gave me the following
interesting details as to the modus
operandi in slaughtering herds of buf-
falo. In the first place the experienced
hunter uses the Sharpe rifle, 1890
calibre. With this he can kill at ], 900
yards. When he sees herd of buffalo
he usually slips up within convenient
range, from 800 to 500 yards, and al
ways selects COW for his first victim.
He does this for the reasSn that q cow
is followed by both her yearling and 3
year-old calves, and they will usually
stand by her to the last. But under nc
circumstances will the experienced
hunter kill his buffalo outright. If he
does the herd will stampede at once.
The policy is to wound fatally, but so
that the animal will dash around in
circle before falling. This it always
does when mortally wounded, and after
few minutes lies down. The re-
mainder of the herd are not alarmed at
this, but continue to Craze or look on,
dazed spectators of the tragedy being
enacted. After his first shot the hunter
pauses until quiet is restored and again
fires at another COW, with similar re-
suits. He always aims to put his balls
behind the fore shoulder, which will
cause death in five minutes at the
furthest. When the cows have all been
slain he then turns his attention to the
calves, and lastly to the bulls.
The experienced hunter generally
bags the entire herd, unless he is so
unfortunate as to drop his game imme-
diately, when all the survivors stam-
pede at once. The buffalo does not
scare at the crack of q gun. He has
decidedly more courage than discre-
ton. 1t is only when the crack is fol-
lowed by an immediate fall that he
realizes its deadly nature and takes
alarm. The policy of killing the cows
first and then the calves has resulted
in the almost utter extinction of the
female buffalo. Herds of melancholy
bulls can still occasionally be seen,
sometimes in bands of twenty or thirty
and often without a single COW. The
few remaining cows now have their
pick of lovers and always choose from
the young blood of the herd. The
buffalo bull, after he passes his fourth
year, loses his attractiveness to the op-
posite sex, and the aversion seems to
be mutual. Gathering about him his
batchelor friends of equal age, he sui
lenly retires into the wilderness and
forever avoids the female members of
the herd, who mate with other and
more luxurious masculines. AS have
said, the bulls are about all that is left
of the buffalo. They largely owe their
liberty to the fact that their hides are of
less value than those of the COWS, while
at the same time they are far more
difficult to kill. The hide of the bull
is only worth to the hunter from $1.8O
to 50, while that of the COW brings
1925 and that of the 2-year-old calf is
worth from 81 to $1.50.