Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1906-11-15
NEW VOL. 41.--NO. 50
The Buffalo and the Bull.


waters of the Missouri, a distance ap-
preaching two thousand miles. The
buffalo was a migrant. being forced to
abandon denuded pastures for fresh
grass, which in turn was abandoned
when consumed. Thus, by an mex
orable law of nature. these noble ami.
mails were kept constantly on the
move, driven by an irresistible I'M
pulse in search of subsistence. Their
migratioas were one of the most mar.
velous spectacles of the plains. Moth
ing stopped them, no obstacle deferred,
no danger caused them to hesitate.
They plunged fearlessly into the
mightiest of rivers, swan with bold
stroke through the Red, Arkansas,
the Cimarron, and the Kaw and did
not hesitate when confronted by the
majestic Missouri's high tide. They
passed in countless hordes through the
ravines of the Ozarks, along the mar
row lodges Of intervening rivers and
eventually reached the grassy valleys
enclosed among the peaks ofthe Rock
les. These vast emigrations were &C.
companied by many losses and innua-
cradle tragedies. Flocks OF ferocious
wolves followed to leap upon the crip-
Piles, to devour those too weak to fol-
low. Woe to the calf that could not
keep up to its mother; woe to the
wounded fighter or those that broke
leg in the perilous passage Of streams
and mountains. Only the fttest sur
vived only the strongest went on.
Believing, blowing, fighting and snort
ing, they swept forward with force
that made the earth tremble and
noise that awaked the solitudes for
miles around.
The picture above sketched was
familiar one all through the thirties
and forties and, in somewhat modified
degree, far into the ffties and sixties,
No one who left a written record
seemed to think that the scenes OF the
middle nineteenth century would ever
undergo material change. 1t did not
occur to them that the same grass that
supported forty million buffalo might
sustain an equal number of domestic
cattle. Washington Irving rode
through what is now Oklahoma in the
fall of 1884, under the escort of a
band Of United States rangers, and
went as far as the Texas line through
what was then known as the Pawnee
Hunting Grounds. Experienced trav-
eler as he was and close observer, he
thought this romantic country was
given over for all time to the nomads
of the prairies and the wild game thew
pursued. The sanguinary Comanches
and still more bloodthirsty Lipans
made regular raids over the Mexican
border into the plains of Texas, to
hunt the buffalo and lay waste such
isolated white settlements as had
found Judgment at that distant day.
zebulon Pike, who crossed the plains
to the mountains of Colorado some
years later, saw the buffalo and their
Indian pursuers, saw the grass that
sustained the herds, but failed to see
in this any outcome for what he de-
nominated 1.-THE Great American Des-
ert." Captain Bonneville, who spent
four years in what is now Wyoming,
Idaho AMI Oregon and hunted the
buffalo in the Horse Prairie, in the
valleys of Salmon and Bear Rivers,
and along the borders of the Seeds
kee-dee, seems not to have taken the
hint as to the possibilities for the fu-
ture live stock ranges which were
eventually to 60 change the whole face
of this extensive grazing ground.
Now look The ranges OF the Da.
kotas, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska.
Kansas, Colorado, Texas and Okla.
homa, total Of about $50, 900 square
miles, were by the last census carry
ing "a 100000 head OF cattle and
horses and about 6, 100000 head Of
sheep. They are now eating the grass
that once sustained the buffalo, bat
when we remember that the latter
had to divide their heritage with
numerous herds of mustangs, antelope
and elk, it is easy to see that they
needed a far wider area to sustain
them than js now devoted to domestic
animals. The chief point Of interest,
however, is the marvellous transforms
ton that has taken Place in the life
time of many men still living. We
also observe the tragedy that invaria-
bly, accompanies propress, BY what
ruthless steps civilization is wrought
out, and how evolution, though ap-