Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1888-04-04
BIT FROM MONTANA.
RuaaIoes stuffed to the Life at Sh'
National Museum.


National Museum.
A little bit of Montana small square
patch from the Widest part of the wild
West-has been transferred to the National
museum, says the Washington Star. It is
as though d little group of buffalo that
have come to drink at a pool had been
suddenly struck motionless by some magic
spell, each in a natural attitude, and then
the section of prairie, pool, buffalo and all
had bsen carefully cut out and brought to
the National museum. All this is in a
huge glass case, the largest ever made for
the museuEl.
The pool of water is a typical alkaline
water hole, such as are found on the great
northern range of bison, and are resorted
to for water by wild animals in the fall, when
the small streams are dry. The pool is in a
depression in the dry bed of small creek,
A little mound that rises beside the creek
| has been partially washed away by the wa
| ter, leaving erumbling bank, which shows
| the strata of the earth, a very thin layer of
vegetable SOIL beneath stratum of grayish
earth and layer of gravel, from which pro-
| trude q fossil bone or two. The whole bank
| shows the marks of erosion by water. Near
| by the pool a small section of the bank has
| fallen. A buffalo trail passes by the pool in
| front. This is narrow path, well beaten
down, depressed and bare of grass. Such
paths were made by herds of bison all over
| their pasture region as they travelled down
| water courses in single file, searching for
water. In the grass, some distance from the
pool, lie the bleaching skulls of two buffalo
who have fallen victims to hunters who have
| cruelty lain in wait to get shot at the ami
mails as they come to drink. Such relics,
| strewn all over the plains, tell the story of
a &c
About the pool and the sloping mound grow
the low buffalo grass, tufts of tall bunch
grass and sage brush, and species of prick
ly pear. The pool is clesr and tranquil.
About its edges is white deposit of alkali.
These are the scenic accessories of the buffa-
10 group, but they have an interest almost
equal to that of the buffalo themselves, for
they form really and literally genuine bit
of the West. The homesick Montana cow
boy, far from his wild haunts, can here gaze
upon his native sod again. For the sod, the
earth that forms the face of the bank, the
sage brush and all were brought from Monta-
na-all except the pool. The pool is glass
sy delusion and very perfect in its way. One
sees plant growing beneath the water, and
in the soft, ooEy bottom near the edge, are
the deep prints made by the forefeet Of a big
buffalo bull. About the soft, moist earth
the foot tracks of the buffalo that have
tramped around the pool, some of those
nearest the edge having allied with water.
The group comprises six buffaloes. At
the front of the pool, as If just going to
drink, is the huge buffalo bull, the giant of
his race, the last one that was secured by the
Smithsonian party in 1887, and the one that
is believed to be the largest specimen of
which there is authentic record. Near by is
a cow eight years old, creature that would
be considered of great dimensions in any
other company than that of the big bull.
Near the cow is a sucking calf four months
old. Upon the top of the mound is
''spike" bull two and one-half years old; de-
seending the mound away from the pool is
young COW of three years old on one side,
and on the other male calf year and a
half old. All the members of the group are
disposed in natural attitudes. The young
COW is snuadng at bunch of sage grass; the
old bull and cow are turning their head in
the same direction apparently, as if alarmed
by something approaching; the others, hav-
ing slaked their thirst, appear to be moving
contentedly away The four-months' 'old
calf was captured alive and brought to this
city. It lived for some days in the Smithso-
nian grounds, but pined for its prairie home
and finally died.