Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1893-09-22
The American Buffalo.
How the Mighty Herds Were Exter-
minated.

How the Mighty Herds Were Exter-
minated.
1.-THE story of this great crime against the animal
kingdom is told by a writer in Harper's Mag
azlne.
Cortez found specimens of the animal in
a museum attached to Montezuma's palace
10 years earlier than this 1880. Corona
do saw them in Indian territory, which he
describes as a region full of crooked-back
oxen as the mountains of Serena in Spain
are of sheep De Soto's followers found
buffalo hides in northern Arkansas, and
heard tales of the mighty herds which
roamed the plains far to the north. In
1913, east of the Alleghanies Sir Samuel
Argoll, an Englishman, saw Buffalo on the
Potomac, near the place where Washing
ton now stands. Father Hennepin found
them when he made his journey up the st.
Lawrence in 1879. From the Atlantic
ocean to the Rocky mountains, and from
Texas to the Great Slave lake, the shaggy
fronted beasts roamed at will, darkening
the plains with their countless numbers,
and grazing upon the succulent grasses
| provided by nature for their sustenance.
Was there ever quadruped which marsh
| allied such an innumerable host as the
American bison? Boone found them in
! Kentucky. Illinois is described by early
writers as covered with buffalo Lewis
! and Clarke found them in the Rocky
mountains. AS late as 1870 they were as
the leaves of the forest for numbers
and there are thousands of men yet living
who have seen herds which numbered half
a million or more animals. Reliable OBJ
servers tell us of estimates which they
made of migratory herds, whose numbers
reach the astounding totals of from eight
to Is millions. Slowly grazing as they
marched, their front stretched over a terri
tory 20 or 30 miles in width. 1t was not
their custom to travel in compact masses,
but to scatter over the plain a few yards
apart or in groups of 10 or more. Such
herds as these have been described as so
miles in length, and the testimony of many
witnesses is easily obtainable to support
every assertion here made as to numbers
George A. Baker, president of the CONT
mental National bank of St. Louis, but
formerly resident of Fort Benton, Mon
tana, and member of firm of Indian
traders there which dealt largely in buffalo
hides, said to the writer: Once | rode
from Sun river to Milk river, and from
there to Fort Benton, about 210 miles, and
during the whole journey | was constantly
surrounded by the animals, and never for
a moment out of sight of them
Up to about 1869 the Indians annually
killed the buffalo by thousands. During
many generations they slaughtered them
only for the meat and skins which they
themselves could use. Then there came a
time when there was a market for the hides
and tongues, and countless other thousands
were slaughtered for this purpose. As late
as 1874 one could buy beautiful fur-robe
overcoat, well made and lined with flannel,
at the retail clothing stores in st. Paul,
Mimi, for $40. There was market, too,
! for the chOicer portions of the flesh, but
this only cut a small figure in the dreadful
total, so that finally the trade in robes con-
stituted the only incentive for slaughter.
The Union Pacific railroad was completed
in 1869, other railroads began to reach out
their iron arms across the Kansas and Ne
braska plains, and from that hour the fate
of the buffalo was sealed. For several
years to come he could be hunted, shot
, from horseback, driven into enclosures and
slaughtered, or perhaps forced over preci-
pieces after the manner described in old ge-
ographies and school books. The animals
: seem to have divided into two great herds
towards the close of their career, for we
l hear of the great southern herd and the
great northern herd The southern herd
was the first to go. Buffalo Bill and his
kind, with English 'sportsmen' and Amer
lean army officers, We'd with each other in
the wanton slaughter. During three short
years, 1S723-4, the number so killed has
been estimated in millions. 1t matters not
= how accurate this estimate is, or whether
; the number so slain was 1000, 900 or TO-.
600, 600, the fact remains that at the close
of 1872 the great southern herd was eX
tinct.
In the North the conditions were more
favorable, but the relentless hunter was
hot upon the trail of the diminishing herds
In 1876 Fort Benton alone sent S0,00C
hides to market. In 1888 two carloads Of
hides were shipped from Dickinson, North
e Dakota. In 1884 Fort Benton sent none al
: all. In 1879 little band of the animal:
were known to be grazing near Fort Tot
ten, on Devil Lake, North Dakota, and il
a. is believed that these animals furnished
y the two carloads of robes which came east
u ward to st. Panl from Dickinson in 1888
This was the last year of the buffalo-lSS3
i A herd, numbering perhaps so, 900, crossed
the yellowstone river in that year, ant
: went north towards the British line
y They never came back, is the pitiful re
: frain which one hears from the Indians
along the border from Winnipeg in Mani
e toba to st. Mary's Lakes in Alberta. No
they never came back, and last summer
) and fall, while riding with the officers o
: the Canadian mounted police through AL
I berta, they told me the story of this las
u year of the buffalo, but it was never tolC
VI twice alike by any two men, for a strange
= mystery seems to hang over the CLOSING
scene of the great crime which annihilate,
the mighty herds.