The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-02-28
A BUFFALO STAMPEDE.
The Living Wave That Was as Terrible a.
Water or Fire.

The Living wave Inat was as Terrible as
Water Fire.
1t is high noon on the great plains of
Central Nebraska. An emigrant party,
composed of adozen wagons and as MANY
families has halted on the Loup Fork of
the Platte river to cook dinner and rest
their animals. 1t is midsummer and
the creek has almost disappeared Here
and there few barrels of water are left
in a deep hole, and again the bed of the
creek is dry for hundred yards The
suns of July and August beat down on
the great plains with terrible effect.
Creeks run dry, rivers sink into insig-
nifcance, the grass is killed to its roots,
and great cracks open in the baked
earth to give convenient shelter to in
sects and reptiles. Then woe to the
man or beast who is far from water.
Thirst will craze him in few hours.
There is water here for the emigrant,
such as it is, but the quantity is reduced
one-half before the thirsty horses have
had their fill. The men look up and
down the bed of the creek, but as far as
the eye can see in either direction there
is no more water. Last May this Loup
Fork would have fioated a ship in it's
channel, but the mountain SHOWS have
melted and no rain has fallen for weeks
AS the camp fires are lighted and the
dinner made ready, let as fly north a
dozen miles. A hundred miles away is
the NiObrara river, rising in the moua-
tains far to the west, flowing in the same
eccentric manner, and its bed also just
as dry at this season of the year. Five
or six days ago herd of buffaloes num-
bering thousands drank their fill at the
Niobrara as they crossed it, working to
the South in fear of the Indian buffalo
hunters, who were abroad on the Dakota
line, and in hopes to find richer pastur-
age along the forks of the Platte.
Here and there as they have pro-
crossed water has been found in small
quantities, but for thirty hours past not
an animal has had a drop. The grass is
scorched and dead the ground hot to
the feet, and the almost solid mass, COW
ering acre after acre, are almost quiet
at this monday hour, Here and there
one losses his head in anger as thirst
torments him, and tn others give utter
ance to their sufferings by long drawn
signs and means.
Every animal has q istless look, and
you would say that it would require
something beyond tbs ordinary to cause
single one of them to break into rum
The sun glares like a ball of fire. The
stirring of so many feet has filled the
air with fine dust, to add still another
torment to the situation. The OK or the
horse would long ago have fallen to the
earth to die.
See! Near the center of the herd
great bull suddenly throws up his head
and scents the air. He is a magnificent
specimen-One of the kings of the herd.
Does his keen scent bring the presence
of water over the dozen miles of scorched
plain? Is there something to make him
afraid? He wheels around and around,
he utters hoarse bellows which excite
the animals around him. and in two
minutes half the herd is in state of
agitation.
Of a sudden, with massive head held
low as if to attack, with eyes blazing,
with clots of foam flying from the corn
demeanOr which clears a path for him,
he heads to the west and charges through
the herd. He is followed by ten, thirty,
d hundred, thousand, by every animal
which can move, and now begins STAN
pede. A mighty living mass rolls over
the plain, body more to be dreaded
than tidal wave sweeping in from the
sea. Movement incites to new energy,
a rivalry to reach the 'front.' a sort of
madness which knows no fear for obstruc-
ton.
The emigrants are at their dinner and
their horses are feeding about them,
when an alarm is sounded. One of the
horses raises his head, looks ixedly to
the east, and utters a shrill neigh of
anxiety. The men look up. The sky
is clear, and there are no signs of
Indians about. They make light Of the
warning and sit down, but a moment
later half dozen horses are pulling at
their lariats, there is trembling of the
earth, and a man whose face is paler
than death leaps up to shout:
GA buffalo stampede. Take to the
wagonsr'
There is room for all and time for all,
but as the men look to the east and see
that great living wave, two or three
miles long, and mile wide, bearing
down upon the camp, they shout in dis
may and cry out in despair.
Nearer nearer-coming straight on
maddened by their thirst and terrified
by their own conduct, ana there is
chorus of shrieks and shouts-the re-
ports of two or three rifes-a series of
crashes which blend into one, and the
camp has been blotted out. AS the great
wave itself hurts into the bed of the
Loup and beyond, there is no sign of the
camp, no sight of the wagons-nothing
to tell of the thirty human beings
alive and well and full of hope only two
minutes before. All have been wiped
out blotted off the face of the earth
Detroit Free Press.