Omaha daily bee., 1909-04-03
WEIRD SPECTACLE ON PLAINS
Herd of wild Buffalo Stampeded
Into the Missouri

hhNeEs
Captain w. r. Martin of st. Louis, a
pilot of the old steamboating on the upper
Missouri river, in an account of his expert
ences in the Chicago Record-Herald, relates
these incidents Of local interest:
1--WE been mixed up in American history
a good deal. landed the first passenger
from a steamboat where Omaha now
stands. When the Mormons left Nauvoo l
took 'em to Council Bluffs on their way to
Salt Lake. Iknew 'em all-Brigham Young.
orson Pratt, Heber Kimbsll. And their
wives; I've danced with 'em many a time
on the grass. A pilot was somebody in
those days; it wasn't like it is now
Ibid / see any buffaloes?' Look here,
/ young man. there's two women now living
In st. Louis who went with me up to Fort
Benton on the twilight, when I carried ass
passengers at $500 apiece, and I killed the
game for all Of 'em. How did l do It?
Every day or two we'd come to a place
where a herd of buffalo was crossing the
river, and the boat would run in among
EN-; I'd just rig my derrick-faT and let
down a great moose right in front of a big
fellow and haul him up on board. l didnt
need no cowboy to rope stock for me; we
got all the fresh meat we wanted that way.
LII D L ptOukll uOnh seventeen a
alive-roped 'em right out o. the river and
hauled my catch on board with the der
rick-fall. It beat any seine you ever saw.
But the awfullest sight I ever saw on the
river was $1,000 buffaloes drowning.
at was about fifteen miles below the
mouth Of the Yellowstone, and I was with
my own boat, the Ben Johnson. Charles B.
Chouteau was with me that trip and we
ooo.o ont ~ dooIy tnUathar Won know
what those plains are like-all light brown,
and stretchin' away to the end o. the
world; you can see fifty miles each way.
Well, out there on the prairie was a great
black wave rolling toward us; it was a
herd of buffalo on the stampede. It seems
as II I could see 1t now, the dust raisin'
under the hoofs of the forward ones in a
sort of cloud that hid 'em from us some
times. As far as we could see, up river
and down. the country was full of them
buffaloes. They never deviated; they came
straight on; nothing could turn EN-"
There rose up before me for an instant
De Quincey's tremendous description of the
approach of the Tartar horde across the
desert. as seen by the Emperor KEN Long;
then It was gone, and I was with Captain
MGssie again, watching the buffalo.
"The head ones reached the river and
began to go over the bank; the water came
out to us in great waves, and the noise
was like a caving bank when a thunderln'
big slice goes in all at once, only COM
tinuous. Soon the river was alive with
'em, and still they swept over; they was
all around us, with their great big heads,
wicked horns and great big shoulders all
covered with heavy hair. I went over to the
bank and laid up. and all the while that
rear kept up. and that great brown dusty
wave poured over the bank into the river.
And then the captain leaned forward
ard clutched my knee, while the horror of
it ali lived again in his face-"then the
river was full-full! And they kept comm
there wasn't no way for the front ones to
stop but by the hind ones stoppin' first.
For, you see, they couldn't get out on the
ether side, where there was a bank twenty
feet high and as steep as the side of a
house. They were four or five deep in the
river now; the bottom ones were dead
they came down against the boat and
rocked It, as the current carried ZEN
under Mr.. Chotesu drew his breath in
deep and hard. I've been in this country
all my life.' he says, but I never saw
anything like thatl"
The captain fell silent; the grimness Of
natures tragedy held him. in the retro
spect.
"Eoor. bewildered brutes!" he said al
last. They used to get out on the ice
and not know it was ice; and the ice would
start TO breakin' up and 1t would grind VI
and grind them UP. until their bodies would
cover the banks and the sandbars," And
/ the veteran of fifty summer on the wilc
, and turbulent Missouri. who has had 81
heavy and so honorable a share in thu
hardships and perils of that pioneer period
: whose sacrifices were the price of the com
= fort and security OF the present genera
| ton, rose and babe me good day.