St. Paul daily globe., 1896-02-09

chats with Mr.. Langley, the secretary
of the Smithsonian institution; Prof.
GOode, the head of the National mu-
scum; DR.. Baker, the scientist in charge
of the Geological Park, and others, as
to this matter. The Smithsonian insti-
tuition has no interest in the matter
outside of a scientific one. 1t has, how
ever, a great amount Of information
concerning the buffalo, much of which
was collected by Mr.. w. T. Hornaday.
All Of this inform alton has been placed
at my disposal, and through it [ am
able to give some of the details of one
Of the most disgraceful deeds of Amer
lean history.
Few people are now aware Of the
former wonderful extent of the buffalo.
No animal has ever existed in such
large numbers nor covered so much
territory. Buffaloes formerly rOamed
over the country as far East as Wash
ingtOn city, and there are records Of
herds of thousands being seen in Pen
nsylvania not long before the revolu-
ton. A hundred years ago they came
in great droves to drink at the Blue
Lick springs of Kentucky. Daniel
Boone speaks of them and it is now
only a few years since they existed by
the millions on the great plains of
the West. In 1871, now only twenty
five years ago, Col. r. I. Dodge rode
lOf 1lly lilies d Hefu OIL Dul-
faloes which he estimated as being
twenty-five miles wide. This was
along the Arkansas river.
FOUR MILLION BUFFALOES.
| At one point he was able to get upon
| a hill, and he says he could see this
| vast herd of buffaloes stretching out
| from six to ten miles in every direction
| The herd was moving and it took
! 1t five days to pass a given point.
| Prof. Hornaday says that at the lowest
! estimate there were 4000,0 900 buffaloes
! in this one herd, and this, as L have
said, was only twenty-five years ago.
In 1868 a traveller along the Kansas
| Pacific railroad states that the train
at one time passed through one hun
dred and twenty miles Of solid buffalo
| The plains were blackened with them
| and more than once the cars were
stopped by them. The best authority
of the National museum as to the early
buffalo is George Catfn, who spent the
greater part of his life in the West
studying the Indian, and who made
many pictures of the buffalo as they
| existed before the great destruction be-
| gan. He tells of herds of millions and
says that their roaring sounded like
thunder, and tells how the Indians
| killed them by the hundreds of thou
sands for the skins, for which they re-
ceived only a pint of whisky apiece.
HOW BUFFALO WE'RE KILLED.
You would not think that such i'm
mense herds could be wiped out The
buffalo, however are very dull beasts
in many ways. They are a mixture OF
stupidity and intelligence which it is
hard to understand. These mighty
herds were made up of companies OF
huffaloes Of from 20 to 100 each, each
clCmp being led and taken care of by
one strong bull. In going for water
one of the old cows Of the clump would
start ahead and nose along the track
of dry stream for miles until it found
| a waterway, the others of that com.
peny following in single file. The hero
would then drink and would lie dowI
to rest before eating. This would seen
to mean high degree of intelligence
But such evidence is not shown in theil
attempting to escape from man. A
hunter might lie with a repeating rifle
near such herd and pick off one aftel
the other without apparently soaring
the rest. If they ran it was usually
against the wind, and they were COW
ards except when brought to bay. A
first the skins brought but little, ant
/ the temptation to kill was not so great
Still, thousands were killed for tn
, pure fun Of killing them. The Southern
; herd, which contained about 4,000,0 ,00C
,, existed up to as late as 1870, up t.
which time only about half a milliol
buffaloes year were killed from II
{ AS soon as the railroads came in hun
l ters came by the score, and, witt