The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1900-02-09
5elrrt Mi5rellun4.
Passing of the Bison.

One ofthe most extraordinary events
that has characterized the last half of
the present century is the eNtcrmina-
ton, the wiping out, of the American
bison. There is little use in resorting
to invcctive or endeavoring to stigma
tie those who are guilty of this crime,
but it would be well if the acts could
be held up in bright light, that those
who committed them might he eXceri-
ated in the time to come, when a 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.
"In 1870, and later" said an army
officer to the writer, 1.-THE plains were
alive with bison, and IN crossing at
places | had difficulty in avoiding them,
so vast were the herds. l 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 wantonness
seems incredible when their vast num-
bers are realized. We first hear Of the
bison from Cortez and his followers in
1921. Montczuma had one in zoolog-
ical garden, the Specimen, in all prob
ability, having been caught in Coahuila.
In 1880 CabeZa saw them in Texas;
and 1912 Coronado found a herd in
what is now the Indian Territory; one
of his officers described them as horri-
BILE beasts that demoralized the horses
In 1912 Sir Samuel Argoll observed
herds of bison near the national capi-
tai, and, in all probability, 2s7 years
ago herds of bizon grazed on the site
of the Capitol building at Washington.
In 1913 Father Hennepin observed
them in what is now Northern Illinois,
and in October, 1929, Col W. Bird
saw herds in North Carolina and Nir-
ginia.
These and other facts have provided
data by which the early geographical
distribution of the bison has been de-
termined, and it is known that this
grand animal, that is to-day represented
by few individuals, formerly ranged
in millions from the Atlantic seahoard
to the Gulf Of Mexico, from Texas to
the Great Slave Lake, anl as far west
as Central Nevada; AS to their num-
bers, they were like the sands of the
seashorc, and the accounts given by
those who hunted them twenty or
thirty years ago to-day seem like vag-
aries of dlsorlcrc,l ina magination. Mr.
Hornaday, who has hunted in South
and Central A fric;l, where game is re-
markaLlv plentiful, states. that the
bison of this country previous to 1870
exceeded, in all probability. all the
African game of every kind. An army
officer in service on the plains in 1867
stated to the writer that on one occa-
sion he was surrounded by hutfaloes,
and that from the top of small! hill he
could see nothing but black mass of
their bodies. 1t was impossible to es-
innate their numbers, and the. party
were in great fear lest they should be
caught in stampede, the rush being
irresistible. Col. Dodge, in his memoirs,
states that on one occasion he rode
twenty five miles III Arkansas, always
being in herd Of hutialoes, or many
small herds, with but small sepa-
rating strip between them. The ami
mails 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 in short range, the shot causing
them to divide. In one day Col.
Dodge killed twentys bison from his
wagon; not in sport, but as a protec-
ton. OthcrwEe they would have run
him down and crushed man, horse and
wagon.