Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-09-03
KILLING THE BUFFALO.
UNPRECEDENTED SLAUGHTER or
THIS AMERICAN ANIMAL.

Upward Of 100000 In IN Incredibly
shovt Space Of Time. Not Over
1000 Nov Running Wild In North
America
william Il. Hornaday. the Superin-
tendent OF the National Geological
Park, at Washington. student ana
hunter Of the buffalo In the old days.
has interested himself In the question
OF preventing their determination. and
has done what he could to bring the
matter TO the attention Of Congress.
Unfortunately. all attempts at legis-
lation for the protection OF this animal
have been in vain, and the result In
that upward Of 6.OOO:UO0 were slaugh-
tered I'm an incredibly short space OF
timer carly 100000 killed In three
years-until now there are not over
1000 Of these animals running wild In
North America. Such a wanton des-
truction OF n valuable beast, purely
and distinctively American In Its char
acter, is unprecedented i'm the history
OF the world.
The familiarity Of the Americans
with the buffalo seems to have bred
contempt, for the great number OF
these animals has led the people to
think Of them as animals which were
valuable only for what their skins
would bring In the market. But owing
to the vast destruction Of the herds,
and the fact that the reduced number
has Increased the price of the skins and
the other products, there has come a
revulsion of popular sentiment In re-
gard to them, and they have become
very valuable i'm the eyes Of the gener-
nj public. and, II IL needless to say, In
the eyes OF those surviving among the
old hunters who can now get large
sums of money for the robes and skel-
etons.
or all the quadrupcds that have lived
upon the earth, Mr.. Hornaday says that
probably no other species has ever mar
shaled such innumerable hosts as those
Of the American bison. IL would have
been as easy to count or to estimate
the number OF leaves In the forest as
TO calculate the number OF buffaloes
living at any given time during the
history OF the species up 10 1870. Even
In South Central Africa. which has al
ways been so prolific in great herds of
game, 1t Is probable that all of it's
quadrupeds taken together on an equal
area would never have more than
equaled the total number of buffaloes
In this country forty or fifty years ago.
To the African hunter such q statement
might seem Incredible. but Mr.. Horna-
day says that il Is fully warranted by
the literature Of both branches Of the
subject. Mr.. John Filson, in 1884,
wrote Of the Blue Licks In Kentucky:
'"The amazing herds of buffalo which
resort thither by their size and number
I'LL the traveller with establishment and
terror. especially when he beholds the
prodigiOus roads they have made from
all quarters, as If leading to some popu-
lOus city" In ITO, where Nashville
now stands, were immense numbers
of buffalOes and other wild game. The
country was black with them. Daniel
Boone found vast herds of buffaloes
grazing In the valleys Of East Tennes-
see, between the spurs of the Cumber-
land Mountains. Between the Rocky
Mountains and the States lying along
the Mississippi River and the west
from Minnesota to Louisiana, the
whole country was one vast buffalo
range, inhabited by millions Of buffa-
loes.
A volume could be filed with the
records Of plainsmen and pioneers who
penetrated that vast region I'm the early
part of the century, and who were as
founded by the number Of buffalOes
they observed. Col. Dodge described
a herd which he saw on the Arkansas
River. According to his recorded OBJ
servation, the herd extended along the
river for distance OF twenty-five
miles, which was in reality the width
Of the vast procession that was moving
north and back from the road as far as
the eye could reach on both sides. At
a low estimate, the ground visible from
the road where Col. Dodge was driving
which was covered by the herd, extend
ed for a mile. This would give n strip
OF country two miles wide and twenty
five long, or total of fifty square miles
covered with buffaloes, averaging, at
Gal. DOdge's estimate, from fifteen to
twenty to the acre. BY the lesser num-
Der, fifteen, 1t Is found that the mum.
Der actually seen on that day by Col.
dodge was In the neighborhoOd OF 4SO..
ZOO. IL the advancing herd had been
at points fifty miles in length, as II was
Nknown to have been In some places.
'sby twenty-five miles In width, and still
averaging fifteen head to the acre, it
would have contained the enormous
number OF 100000 head, but. judg-
Ing from the principles which governed
their periodical migrations, the moving
mass probably advanced In the shape
of g wedge, which would leave about
4,OOO,OOO as fair estimate of the ac-
tual number of buffaloes in the great
southern herd. Ii is no wonder, there
fore, that the men Of the West OF those
days, both white and red, thought II
would be impossible to exterminate
such mighty multitude. The Indians
Of some tribes believed that the buffa-
locs issuel from the earth continually
and that the supply was inexhaustible
and yet, in four years that southern
herd was almost totally extinct. with
such lesson before our eyes," said
Mr.. Hornaday. confirmed In every de.
tail by living testimony, who will dare