The age-herald., 1901-01-07
BUFFALO AMONG CATTLE.
Relic of Old Days Appears in North
 Dakota Herd.

From the Chicago Record.
 An immense buffalo bull has put in an appearance among the cattle owned by the Sioux Indians and ranged near the Stand. ing Rock reservation, sixty miles south of this city. The animal came unheralded whence nobody knows. For years it has been supposed that every bison was extinct in this State, and the last time that any were seen in the State was back in the mid dle sos, when Governor Roosevelt, hunting along the Little Missouri river, killed one at a crossing of the river The animal that has made its appearance near Standing Rock Is unusually wild and fierce, and dis posed to attack herdsmen who attempt to get near it. Strict orders have been issued by the agent against killing the animal, in the hope that 1t will remain and that oth- CTS may be discovered.
 The presence of this lone monarch of the prairies recalls the time when the bison ranged the vast praires in the western part of the State by thousands, If not mill lions, when every water hole was a gather ing place for them, and the hills and val leys were worn deep with trails along which the animals went from feeding ground to watering places. Even yet all through the western part of the State there are deep trails that were made by the bison, and that have not been wiped out in half a cen- tury. The suddenness of the extinction of the bison is among the most remarkable features of the development of the Vest From thousands and hundreds of thousands they dwindled away almost at once.
 In the early days of steamboating along the Missouri river passengers were fre- quently treated to an unusual sight in the fording of the river by bands of thousands of these animals. On one occasion boat plying up the stream was forced to stop and tie up for forty-eight hours while the im- mense moving mass of bison plunged into the stream swam through it's muddy wa T ALA .tl~ -1l Nl~A water was churned to foam and the river literally black with the animals. They made periodical trips of this kind from one side of the Missouri to the other, always moving in immense bodies. buffalo st9m- pede was not uncommon. and woe to the unfortunateS who might be caught in the path.
 Then came the buffalo hunters. In the early days of Bismarck hundred of hunteers armed themselves and sought the feeding ground of these animals. Thousands upon thousands of them were killed for the hides, the carcasses being left to rot on the prai- ries. No precautions were taken at that time against their extinction, and the result was that in few years there was not bison remaining The Indians also engaged in frequent hunts, riding into the dense herds upon their ponies and slaughtering them by thousands.
 Buffalo coats and robes that were worth a few dollars twenty yeats ago in the West now command fancy prices. Good robes are impossible to obtain at any price, and coats are eagerly sought after. The government still has a few rough coats in store that are issued to the soldiers in the far West. Buffalo heads that were sold for a little or nothing fifteen and twenty years ago now bring as high as $500 when mounted, and are difficult to obtain at that price,
 In the hills near Standing Rock the coun- try is rough and broken. and is seldom wis., tal ic oh 10 ra 0f the solitary bison, that there may be small bands of them ranging the inclosed feed ing grounds, and every effort will be made to locate and protect them.