Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1890-06-21
ALMOST DIFFERENTIATED.
COUNTLESS BISON ONCE ROAWED
THE UESTERN ILAINS.

One of the most melancholy chapters
in American history, at least in Ameri-
can natural history, is graphically told
in the recently published Government
report on The determination of the
American Bison" by w. 7. Hornaday.
But a few years ago the biSons, buffalos,
as we wrongly call them. on our western
plains We're as sands on the sea shore. 1t
seemed impossible that they should ever
decrease, yet on January 1, 1890, the
number of individuals in the whole coun-
try was known as exactly as the inhab-
itants of a rural village-there were
only 1901 of them, and of these SOC
were tame. The tribe will probably
never become entirely extinct like the
New Zealand moa or the dodo of Maur-
titus, for the Government now protects
a small herd in the Yellowstone Park,
yet these by continual interviewing will
probably decrease in size till the huge
creature that once rOamed our plains
shall become sort of domestic animal of
no remarkable dimensions.
The bison. so says Mr. Hornaday. once
ranged over about one-third of the entire
North American continent, from almost
tide water on the Atlantic to the Western
prairies, across the Rockies to Utah and
Idaho, southwark into Mexico, and north
to the Great Slave Lake. 1t was at its
heyday about a century and half ago,
and probably, if left undisturbed, it
would have reached the Pacific Slope
As late as 1870 lit would have been as
easy to count or to estimate the number
of leaves in a forest" as to tell the num-
Der of bsons in this country. The last
of the great herds, seen in 1871, was 25
by 30 miles in extent and contained not
less than I 100000. In places the plains
We're black with the animals as far as
the eye could reach. A train once
passed 1870 miles through this great herd.
This was the northernmost of the two
great herds into which the Pacific Rail
road had divided the bisons of the West
in 1869 The building of the Kansas Pa
Cific in 1871, running through the head
quarters of the southern herd, was the
main cause of its destruction. The
slaughter. which reached its height in
1873, was so WantOn and wasteful that,
SO it is said, every hide sent to market
represented four animals actually slain.
Three and half millions of this south
ern herd were slaughtered between 1872
and 1874, and by 1875 the remnant only
about 5000, fled into Texas. where only
a few now remain. The northern herd,
partially preserved by the enormous ter
ritory over which it became scattered,
had its numbers thinned by the Indian
hunters till finally, in 1880, the Northern
Pacific Railroad gave it its death blow.
In that year the herd was hemmed in,
and by February, 1898, only few thou
sand of them We're alive.
Even the hunters themselves did not
know how ruthless had been their slaugh-
ter, for in the autumn of 1883 costly eX-
petitions were organized and actually
went to the hunting grounds, only to find
that the game, once numbered by count
less millions, was practically annihilated.
1t was thought at first that the herd had
escaped into British territory, for it could
not be believed that the animals had been
eXterminated in so short a time, but their
extinction is now only too well known.
In addition to the small herd-about 200
protected in the Yellowstone Park, scat
tered individuals or small droves exist
here and there throughout the West, but
these are steadily hunted down, and soon
there will be none left.
This whole story is rather sad reading,
especially for any one who cares aught
for the preservation Of game, or for one
who laments the extinction of any race
Of animals, but its commercial side
should not be overlooked. If any one
ever deliberately killed the goose that
laid the golden egg it was the hunter who
eXterminated such valuable animal as
the bison.
We hear on all sides the time honored
remark about the red man being gradu-
ally driven into the Pacific and about
the rapid decrease of his numbers, yet
reliable statistics are now given showing
that there are many more Indians on this
continent to-day than there We're when
Pocahontas averted the alleged war club
from the fertile and somewhat menda-
ciouls brain of Captain John Smith. Is it
any wonder, then, that statements about
the decrease of the bison should receive
little attention?
But the fact remains that not more than
a thousand or SO OF these animals are left
to us, and now their duties will be chiefly
confined to filling engagements in men,
ageries and in being stuffed after they
have shuffled off their skin and horns.
There is only one task remaining to the
American people, part of whom have
slaughtered bisons from the car VIM
dows while the rest looked on with apa-
thy. There is yet money to be made out
of the bison Let the few thousand that
remain be killed and the bodies buried;
let the stuffed carcases of those already
set up in museums be spirited away Let
only one remain, or at least a dozen or
so. The price of these will at once raise
us take lesson of the dodo, a stuffed
specimen of which would to-day bring
more than the whole dodo tribe We're
once thought to beworth. SO much does
scarcity enhance the value of a natural
history specimen. The bison is not yet
quite as scare as the dOdo, but its eXtinc-
ton will be much greater loss to the
world.
The royal mail steamer on her last
passage to Liverpool ran into an electric
storm, the masts, yards, and rigging be-
ing brilliantly Illuminated with balls of
fire. The first officer says 1t was grand
sight, many Of the passengers coming on
deck to see it. About midnight a mis-