The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-06
HOW THE BISON PERISHED
MILLIONS OFIHEM SLATN BY HUN1-
 FRS IN 4 FEW YEARS.
One Herd That Was Fifty Miles Wide And Took Five Days to Pass Another That Overturned Railroad
 Train In fSansas-n Deplorable War

Another That Overturned Nntlfona
 Train In Kansus-n Deplorable Wan
 of fExtermination.
 One of the most extraordinary events
 that has characterized the last half of
 the present century is the eXtermination
 the wiping out--of the American bison.
 There is little use in resorting to in-
 vective or endeavoring to stlSmat1ze
 those who are guilty of this crime, but
 it would be well if the acts could be
 held up in a bright light that those who
 committed them might be eXcor1ated
 in the time to come, when afeW bones
 and pictures will alone tell the story
 of mighty race swept from the face
 of the earth by the civilized people Of
 the nineteenth century,
 "In 1S7O and later" said an army
 officer to the writer, the plains were
 alive with bison, and in crossing at
 places I had difficulty in avoiding them,
 so vast were the herds. If any one had
 told me then that in twenty years or
 thirty years they would have become al
 most extinct, should have regarded [
 son.
 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 ln 1 1521. Montezuma had one in Zoologlc-
 al garden, the specimen, in all probabili- ty, having been caught in Coahuila. In | 1850 Cabeza saw them in Texas; and in 1542 Coronado found a herd in what is l now the Indian Territory; one of his
 officers describing them as horrible
 beasts that demoralized the horses. In 1912 Sih Samuel Argoll observed herds
 of bison near the national capital, and, in all probability, 1S7 years ago herds
 of bison grazed on the site of the capi- tol building at Washington. In 1878 Father Hennepin observed them in what is now northern Illinois, and in October 1729, Col. w. Bird saw herds in North
 Carolina and Virginia
 These and other facts have provided data by which tfie early geographical distribution of the bison has been de- termined, and 1t is known that this grand animal, that is to-day represent ed by few individuals, formerly rang ed from the Atlantic seaboard to the Gulf of Mexico, from Texas to the Great Slave Lake, and as far west as Central Nevada. As to their numbers they were like the sands of the eeashore, and the accounts given by those who hunted them twenty or thirty years ago to-day seem lige vagarles of a disorder ed imagination. MT. Hornaday, who has hunted in South and Central Africa, where game is remarkably plentiful, states that the bison of this country previous to 1870 exceeded in all prob- ability, all the African game of every kind An arm officer in service on the plains in 1867 stated to the writer that on one occasion he was surrounded by buffaloes and that from the top of small hill he could see nothing but a black mass of their bodies, It was im- possible to estimate their numbers, and the party were in great fear lest they should be caught in stampede. the rush being irresistible Col. Dodge, in l his memoirs states that on one ocea- sion he rode twenty five miles in Ar kansas, always being in 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 caus ing them to divide. In one day Col. Dodge killed twenty-six bison from his wagon not in sport but as aproctection. Otherwise they would have run him down and curshed man, horses and wag- on
 This herd observed by Col. Dodge was later found to be fifty miles wide and to occupy five days in passing a given point on it's way north. From a high rock, from which points ten miles dis tant could be seen in every direction, the earth seemed to be covered with bison. To make an accurate estimate of the numbers seen would be mpos- sible, but MT. Hornaday by a conserva- tive calculation estimates that Colonel Dodge must have seen four hundred and eighty thousand, and that the herd com prised half a million buffaloes. A train on the Kansas Pacific road in that State in 1868 passed between the towns of TIle- worth and Sheridan--120 miles-through | a continuous herd of buffaloes. They l were packed so that the earth was black | and more than once the train was stop | ped, the surging mass becoming me- | mace to human safety.
 You cannot believe the facts as they | existed in the days of 1S71-72," said an | army officer. q was at that time on ] duty in the pay department, which 1 made it necessary for me to travel on | the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe ! Railroad. One day the train entered large herd, which scattered and seem ed to go wild at the shrieking of the | whistle and the ringing of the bell, As We went on the thicker they became until the very early appeared to be rolling mass of humps so far as we could see Suddenly some of the an- mals nearest us turned and charged: I others fell in behind and down on us they came like an avalanche The en- gineer stopped the engine and let off steam and whistled to stop them. while we fired from the platforms and win 1ows with rifles and revolvers, but it was like trying to stay a tidal wave We stood in the centre of the car to await the crash, some of the men going .o the rear. On they came the earth rom b1irp and rof11Io ond IooIe No