The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1891-12-31
ONLY A FEW LEFT.
The American Buffalo Has Be-
come Nearly Extinct.
Colorado the Home OF the Eemainin.
Members of Countless Herds
Wanton Destruction of
the Animals.

There are about fifty buifalos still
ranging wild in Colorado, says the d
yer Republican. And yet one man, 4 -
whom frontier justice is waiting, re-
Gently killed five.
1t has been SO generally and frequent
ly stated and published that the Ameri
can buffalo and bison have become com
pletely and thoroughly extinct that The
general public has come to accept it us
u fact and believe that the only speci
mems are those which have become do
mesticated and are carefully housed
and cared for in the several geological
gardens and parks.
That there are few of them remaining
on the plains is certainly true but there
are enough, with proper protection, to
soon produce large herds. In this state,
where once there were thousands of
these animals, their number has been
rapidly reduced by hunters, who have
slain them simply for the momentary
pleasure they have experienced in kill
ing large game, until they now number
less than fifty and are in four small
herds. These are confined to the rough
or and more sparsely populated dis
tricts, their habitations being more
effective protection to them than all
the state game laws ever enacted by the
! general assembly.
So small had grown the number of
these distinctively American animals
that in 1889 the state legislature enact
cd n law providing severe penalty for
the killing of single specimen before
! the year 1000, thus allowing full ten
years for them to propagate, but in
spite of this enactment word was re-
ceived but short time ago that some
one in the Kenosha range had shot five
buffaloes. State Game Warden Land
started at once to make a special and
personal investigation of the case.
While out he has also made an extern
sive visit through the state, and he has
just returned with an interesting ac-
count. He is somewhat discouraged
with many things connected with the
enforcement, or, more properly, the
nonenforcement of all the game laws,
and predicts that unless something
decisive is done, and that very soon, the
buffalo will not be the only family
wiped from the face of the earth He
reports a most terrible slaughter of all
game during the last few months. He
was asked in reference to the killing of
buffaloes.
''There are now very few of them, v
he stated land these, in our feeble
and crippled condition, we are endeav-
oring to protect. That FIVE of them
were killed recently is a fact, but
found that we could not convict tho
guilty if we brought him to trial. lie
admitted having killed five of them ant
boosted of the fact to his friends, but
we could find no one, after careful in
vestigation, who would testify agains
him, and if he were arraigned Ii,
would, of course, say not guilty.
81 judge that we have now in tn,
state something less than fifty butfa
loes, and these are in four lunches
One of these has recently been seen il
Middle park, and numbers but five
Another, and possibly the largest, il
in the Kenosha range, and number
possibly twenty. The third, of ten o
fifteen head, is at Hahn's peak, in Rout
county. The fourth, and the smalles
except that at Middle park, is a
Dolores"