The morning news., 1899-12-31
HOW THE BISON PERISHED.
MILLIONS OF THEM SLAIN BY
HUNTERS IN A FEW YEARS.
One Herd That Was Fifty Miles Wide
and Took Five Days to Pass-An-
other That Overturned a Railroad
Train I'm kansas-A DepIorabIe

other That Overturned a Railroad
Train I'm kansas-A DepIorabIe
War of DETERMINATION.
From the Sclenhfic American.
One of the most extraordinary events
that has characterized the last half of
the present century is the extermination
the wlping out of the American bison.
There is Ilttle use in resortiag to invective
or endeavoring to stigmatize those who are
guilty Of this crime bus it would be well
if the acts could be held up in q bright
light, that those who committed them
might be excoriated in the time to come,
when few bones and pictures will alone
tell the story of a mighty race swept from
the face Of the earth by the civilized peo-
PIE Of the nineteenth century.
I'm 1870, and later" said an army officer
to the writer "the pains were alive with
bison, and in crossing at PAGES l had DIFF
iculty in avoiding them, 50 vast were the
herds. II any one had told me then that
In twenty or thirty years they would
have become almost entirely extinct,
should have regarded the statement as
that of an insane person."
That so many of these animals could
have been killed in mere wontenness seems
Incredible when their vast numbers are
realized. We first hear Of the bison from
Cortez and his followers in 1921 Monte
yuma had one in a zoo,ogical garden, the
specimen, In all proba bi.ity, having been
caught in Coahuila. In 1880 Cabeza saw
them in Texas; and in 1912 Coronado found
a nerd in what is now the Indian Terri
tory; one of his officers describing them
as horrible beasts that demoralzed the
horses. In 1912 Sir Samuel Argoll observ-
ed herds of bison near the national capi-
tai, and, in all probability, 2S7 years ago
nerds of bison grazed on the site of the
capitol building at Washington. In 1878
rather Hennepfu observed them in what
ls now Northern Illinois, and in October,
lI2s, Col. w. Bird saw herds in North
Carolina and Virginia.
These and other facts have provided
data by which the early geographical dis
tribution of the bison has been determ ne J.,
and it is known that this grand animal,
that is to-day represented by few indi-
viduals, formerly ranged in millions from
the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of NJ lex
leo, from Texas to the Great Slave lake,
and as far West as Central Nevada. AS
to their numbers, they We're like the sand
| of the seashore, and the accounts given
by those who hunted them twenty or thir-
ty years ago, to-day seem like vagaries of
a disordered imagination. Mr. Hornaday,
who has hunted in South and Central AZ
rica, where game is remarkably plentiful,
states that the bison of this country pre-
Vious to 1870 exceeded, in all probability,
all the African game OF every kind An
army officer in service on the plains in
1857 stated to the writer that on one oc-
easion he was surrounded by buffaIoes,
and that from the top Of small hill he
could see nothing but a black mass Of
their bodies. II was impossible to es-
! innate their numbers, and the party were
in great fear lest they should be caught
in a stampede the rush being Irresistible.
| Col. Dodge, in his memoirs, states that on
one occasion he rode twenty-five miles in
Arkansas always being in a herd of buff
! faloes, or many small herds, with but a
small separating strip between them. The
animals paid but little attention to him
merely moving slowly out of the way or
| advancing, bringing the whole herd OF
| thousands down on him with the roar OF
| an avalanche. This he met by standing
| fast and firing when they came within
short range, the shot causing them to di-
| vide. In one day, Col. Dodge xii ed TWEEN
ty-six bison from his wagon; not in sport
but as protection. Otherwise they would
| have run him down and crushed man,
horses and wagon.
This herd observed by Col. Dodge was
| later found to be fifty miles wide and 10
| occupy five days in passing a given point
! on its way north. From high rock
| from which points ten miles distant could
be seen in every direction, the earth seem
ed to be covered with bison. To make
an accurate estimate of the numbers seen
would be impossible, but Mr.. Hornaday
| by conservative calculation, estimat es
| that Col. Dodge must have seen $4,000
| and that the herd comprised
half million buffaloes. train on the
| Kansas Pacific road in that state in 1865
pasesd between the towns of Ellsworth
and Sheridan-129 miles-through a contin-
| uous herd of buffaloes. They were packed
| so that the earth was black, and more
| than once the train was stopped the
surging mass becoming a menace to hu-
man safety.
listed in the days of 1s71-72," said an army
| officer Il was at that time on duty IL
| the pay department, which made it nee
| essary for me to travel on the Atchison
Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad One daJ
| the train entered a large herd, whicn scat
tered and seemed to go wild at the shrek.
| ing of the whistle and the ringing of the
| bell As we went on the thicker they be
| came until the very earth appeared to be G
| rolling mass of humps 50 far as we could
| see. Suddenly some of the animals near.
| est us turned and charged; others fell
| in behind, and down on us they came like
| an avalanche. The engineer stopped the
engine, let off steam and whistled to stor
them, while we fired from the platform;
and windows with rifles and revolvers
but it was like trying to stay a tida
wave We stood in the center of the car
| to await the crash, some of the men going
| to the rear. On they came, the earth
trembling and plunged heads down into
us Some were wedged in between the
cars. other beneath; and so great was the
crush that they toppled three cars over anJ
actually scrambled over them one buff
falo becoming begged by having his legs
caught in the window. Such incidents oc-
CURED several times, and twice in one
week were trains deralled by charging buff
faloes, whose numbers 1t was impossible
| to compute.
Hunters have heard the roaring of buffa-
| loes at a distance of from three to five
| miles. and that the earth trembled when
! they charged we can well imagine when
the large bulls are known to weigh 2,o0C
pounds. the COWS /, 200 pounds. The ques.