Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1885-06-04

/
aggregated about 100,0 900 Oa the
Missouri river and Its tributaries the
same numbe. were secured, making
about 200, coo in all. Sixty thousand
antelope and deer skins wer secured
1 the same year on the Yellowstone and
/ 100, 900 on the Missouri. in 1881 the
Yellowstone country yielded abuut
| lao, 600 buffalo robes ard IS. 900 an
telop e and deer skins. The Missouri
river districts sent nearly 100, 600
/ buffalo robes to market during the
season of 1881, besides seventy odd
/ thousand antelope and deer skins.
From January to December 1882.
about so, 600 butfaloes were killed near
Miles City and Glendlye in eastern
Montana. The whole territory yield
cd somewhere in the neighborhOod of
1856, 900 robes. The number of antel-
ope, deer, and elk slaug entered that
year is not accurately known, but as
it was a great year for professional as
well as unprofessional sporismen, the
actual number of game animals that
either bit the dust of the prairie or
yielded up their lives among the
mountains must be something awful
TO calculate In Idaho and Montana
that season there were not less tban
five thousand hunters scattered along
the line of the Northern Pacific.
Ia 1883 there was a marked falling
off in the supply of robes and skins.
Nevertheless, 100, 600 buffalo robes
were shipped from Glendive alone,
and as many more from other points
along the railroad These, however,
were part Of the previous season
slaughter. In 1884 there was no crop
at all to speak of, and IN 1886 there
can be none, as there are no living
bison in the northwest TO furnish any
more robes. In a word, the buffalo
is extinct. There may, however, be
a slight exception to this, as there are
few in the northern wilds OF the
Yellowstone National park, kind of
mountain buffalo, where the govern
ment protects them from annihiiation
by stringent game laws and a corps of
gamekcepers, There is still another
small herd Of these brutes in North
western Montana, in the valley of
Milk river, j. G. Baker, the great
cattle king Of that section, has them
safely corralled and carefully guarded
by his cowboys 1t is purely a specu-
lative scheme on that gentleman's
part, however, as the poor brutes are
securely peGned, and will be finally
slaughtered when there is a corner in
robes.
To sum the matter up, these figures
of the hides and robes exported from
this section represent about two-thirds
of.the actual number of animals kill
ed, Fully ene-third of all the great
host decayed with their robes around
them. No more than two thirds of
the skins were saved. A traffic in
their bones has sprung up, which Will,
in year or two, clean up the great
buffalo cemeteries of the west, leaving
not one remnant Of a great race Of
animals in the country that was once
their homr. Az nearly every station
on the railroad last year could be seen
piled up for shipment the chaotic an
atomy of countless thousands of buf =
faloes Cattlemen were paid ~ and
So a wagon load for them. Cowboys
with little else TO do, and even lazy
! Indians with an eye 20 the almighty
dollar went into the scavenger bust
ness and collected buffalo bones for
lucre. For months carload after car
| load, TO the number of thousands,
passed eastward TO Minnesota,
Indiana, Illinois, where they
were turned TO account as fer~
tilizers. Even the skulls aud
bones that surveyors have stood up as
| sighting points have been picked up
and carried off, such is the demand
for them. Delivered at the factories
the frames are worth $25 a ton, the
freight charges ranging from IS to $40
per ton. Horns alone bring $40 ton,
and are extensively used by makers
Of umbrellas and fans. From pOr-
ton of the head glue is obtained, and
the peck bones and shoulder blades
are worked up into the popular buff
falo horn buttons. A great many Of
our buffalo bones, horns, and hoofs
are annually shipped to England.
and, after being turned over once or
twice by the cutlery factories q Shelf
! 6eld, come back to US in the shape Of
inc knife handles and other articles
/ OF finished cutlery. England also I'M
ports great quantities of beef shanks
/ for the manufacture of fertilizers.
There may be few herds north OF
the international boundary line in the
Canadian northwest, but either Riel's
sharpshooters or Middleton's militia,
or both together, will make short
work of them before many months.
There IS no use of enacting any saw
ing laws for their protection III our
country now, as there are none to
protect The harvest of skins has
ended. The American bison is an
extinct animal But if they can, let
them take comfort in the reflection
that, even though slaughtered and
swept from existence by the white
race, they have been Of some use as
buttons, fans, umbrellas, and the like
to the generation Of man and womcn
that is dying with then.
Rubbing II In.
New York Sun
A. $500, ,,,ui,e -. Hto.a,.ca ., ivav,