The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-27
A FALLEN MONARCH.
Rapid determination of the Buf-
faIo in America.
Only a Few Left Where Millions
Once ROamed.

When the Union Pacific Railway was
built from Omaha to Cheyenne, in the
years 1867, says William T. Hornaday,
in the Cosmopolitan, it cut through the
center Of the great buffalo range, and
from it as a base Of operations the
hunters swarmcd north and south, slay-
ing as they went. Thus was the great
herd cut in twain never to be reunited.
The Stakcd Plain Of Texas presently be-
came the geographical center of the
southern herd, and G.cndive, Montana,
that Of the northern. In a short time
the building Of the Atchison, Topeka
and Santa Fc, and the Kansas Paci-
tic railways thoroughly opened up all
parts Of the southern buffIo country, and
in 1879 arose a demand for buffalo robes
that proved fatal to the species, The
war of cxtirmInation began Immediately,
and according to the statistics that have
been gathered and published by Colonel
Dodge the years 1923 and 4 saw the
destruction of over four million three
hundred and sevcnty-threo thousand
seven hundred and thirty buffalo on the
southerh-range Thus was this great
herd slaughtered out of existence in
about three years time. The survivors
sought refuge in the desOlatc wastes OF
the Stakcd Plain; but even there the
relentless hunters still pursued them,
when bull robes sold for one dollar and
twenty-five cents each, and the
COWS were slaughtered for skins
that were worth the paltry sum of only
65 cents. That was bad enough, and
entirely too bad, but if I could call up
before you vision of the hundreds of
thousands of dead buffalo that were
heartlessly slain for their tongues or
their humps, or for "sport" O. alone,
you would sicken at the sight. Never
in the history of the whole animal
kingdom has there been such another
bloody and cruel carnage, or one that
yielded so little in proportion to the
total value involved.
The Northern Pacific railway was
opened for traffic from GIendivc east
ward in 1880, and the buffalo hunters
made an assault in force on the northern
herd Buffalo hides were shipped east
ward by the railway and the Missouri
river by tens of thousands, until 1884,
when the work of determination was
complete In 1885 not a single fresh
hide W; s in the market, and in the year
following only two rewarded the inquiries
of the buyers The buffalo were gone
forever, not only from the United States,
but from the British Possessions as we'll.
Last year the largest fur house in
Montreal asked from thirty to forty dol
lars each for robes, and some of the
leading furricrs in New York had none
at all.
Another fact that stares us unpleas.
antly in the face is that with the eXccp-
ton of the wild buffalo in National
Park, all of which will eventually
either wander out or be frightened out
and killed, unless the Park is inclosed
by a barbod wire fence in time to
prevent it, the National Government
has not a single buffllo on any of its
reservations, nor anywhere else in
charge of any one in its employ In
spite of the attention that is being paid
IN other quarters to the development Of
our animal products no steps whatever
have been taken to preserve bos Ameri-
canus from total annihllation. At ali
events, it now seems reasonably certain
that in three years more there will
not be wild buffalo remaining on the
whole continent of North America, ex-
cept in the National Park
Up to 1865 the whole of the great
western region from the foot hills of the
Rocky Mountains eastward to the
borders of CIVILIZATION, and from the Sa5-
katchewan to the Stake Plains of
Texas was occupied by butfolo, Within
our own Territory the number of head
alive in 1868 must have been about eight
millions. Even as late as 1868 Mr..
William Bluckmorc declares that in
making journey Of one hundred and
twenty miles from Ellsworth to Shcri-
dan they passed through an almost uu-
broL-o,, barI of Iuff,I, I, +bo-o dow,