The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-26

| hides. The slaughter Tor hides began
 about 1873.
 For weeks at a time I have seen the | plains black with buffaloes as far as the 1 eye could reach. We never wearied of
 watching their movements, which
 when understood, seemed as symmetri- | cal as the evolutions of an army. In
 the summer and autumn, or until the l grass became scant, the buffaloes con- 1 gregated in immense herds, often num- /, bering hundreds of thousands. I have ] ridden for nearly Q hundred miles ; through such a mass, although this was . something out of the regular order, when they would simply move back a few hundred yards from the road and resume grazing. Herds extending from five to twenty miles, however, were not uncommon. When hunted but little the
 diurnal movements of such herds on a
 grass became scanty.
 When the evening shades began to fall they would move from the lower or valley lands, nightfall finding them on the higher slopes and swells of the prai-
 rie, where every moving object could be
 better seen by the bulls that ever
 guarded the herd. While their night
 camps appeared to be broken up into
 separate cantonments, an alarm sound
 ed at any part of the line would bring
 every bison within twenty miles ir-
 stantly to his feet ready for battle or
 that headlong rush that would trample
 an army into the earth if there was not
 room for the current to part and pass.
 Day and night the males were on guard
 on the borders of the herd, and, to no-
 vice, it would appear that here was a
 race of only one sex; but In the center
 of this dark mass, as far removed from
 danger as possible, were mothers and
 young. Like SO much that is animate,
 the buffalo is ruthless, the aged and
 ailing being relentlessly driven forth to
 fall prey to the bands of wolves al-
 ways hanging upon the Hanks of the
 herd
 When undisturbed the herd moved
 from it's bed ground at earliest dawn
 and grazed toward the water courses.
 The males were always in the van and
 in the rear and on the Hanks ready to
 battle with the wolves or give warming of mans approach, and possibly the
 signal for wild stampede that once
 begun stopped for nothing, and if the van came to precipice or bluff unex- pectedly and there was no time to turn, the foremost ranks were pushed over the brink by the great mass in the rear until the declivity was bridged by car casses that afforded safe road for the remainder of the herd, Equipped with lungs of vast volume, buffaloes sustain headIong flights for hours, such lungs enabling them tlo scale long and steep ascents with nearly as great speed as they move upon the level plain. The most enduring horse is no match for them in prolonged race up long in- clines or over a broken country. When pressed too closely, they make a pivot of the hinder feet, and, whirling about, strike pursuing horse and rider to the ground and then attempt to finish them by trampling. Although, when not ic-stricken, fierce and pugnacious in the feral condition, the young are easi- ly domesticated, becoming so tame and familiar as to annoy their owners, as every open door is an invitation to en- ter the house, where their investiga- tions are not baked by the necessity of mounting stairs.
 Even when grass was abundant and calves still needed protection, the great herds, if much hunted. would break up into small bands, as they always did when grass became scarce. The sports man had the most enjoyment in pur- suit of these bands, as they were ur1u- slally wary and difficult to approach. 2
 One winter morning, when the first snow covered the ground, l mounted a fleet young mare and, with no expecta- ton of seeing buffa1oes, rode up the creek to see how the cattle were faring. The rifle carried had but three cart ridges in the chamber, but as fortune would have it, revolver was in the holster and handful of ammunition in the pocket. The cattle were found to be in good shape, and I was returning to the ranch when, coming around the point of bluff into the narrow valley of one of the creeks lesser tributaries, three large buffaloes were seen busily showing aside the snow that they might reach the grass. Turning back a few rods, under cover of the bluff, I fast ened the mare to willow, and, taking the rifle and keeping under cover. until within fair range of the game, opened fire, killing one and wounding the oth- CTS, both of whom started up the little valley in the direction of the broken. lands of the western hills. Running to the mare, and dropping the empty rife, I was in almost instant pursuit, nnd, by avoiding the winding valley the speedy mare, after few miles run, brought me upon the flank of the larger beast With pistol poised was about to fire when the enormous fellow, with his shaggy crest lowered, whirled to the left, and so quick and well-timed was the movement that horse and rider went down before the blow. Finding myself prone upon my back and the mad brute, with eyes af1ame and blood pouring from his nostrils, rushing at me, or rather actually about to tram pie me into the ground--his hoof marks i'm the snow were afterward found to be less than a foot from the impression left in the snow by my form--I had of mind enough to fire into hia throat just as he was about to give me the finishing stroke, When I fired he was SO near that the blood from his for mer wound bespattered my clothing and the pistol almost touched his neck. Under circumstances so favorable for a | good shot even indifferent rnarksnan- ship sufffced, and when the crack of the | pistol was heard my assai1ant stag |