Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-05-21

70 nterce with the a ON be-
half Of their hunger. Spreading out
his wing over the plains he told
them ID return and theywonld ind the
buffalo, They did, and the plains
we're covered with bison, and the fam
Inc was broken
The buffalo is an animal OF rather
4 low order OF intelligence, and his
ddllness was one Of the prime factors
iii his phenomenally swift extermina-
ton. Being exceptionally slow to real-
lie the existence and nature Of dan.
gers which threatened his life. he
would often stand quietly, and see
scores and even hundreds OF his fel.
lows killed with seeming Indifference.
Regularly as winter came on these
animals moved to the southern part
Of their range, much the same as do
certain species of birds. Upon reach
ing their winter pasturage they scat
tered, and at the end of the eason
returned north in less conspicuous
herds. They travelled much faster
than one would suppose from their
ungainly appearance, and rarely fol-
ilowed any but their W well beaten
paths. When free from Ice, rivers
as wide as a mile were crossed with
out hesitation. In winter the com
!, bined weight of the herds often broke
the ice. drowning many. Soft, mud
dy places and shallow pools were
sought by these animals. where they
rolled and wallowed until they had
compIetely covered themselves with
lmud which, when baked in the sun
. formed an effective armor against at
-tacks of annoying insectes.
While there were many individual
or small firm traders in the foothills
of the Rockies, the firm of Z. G. Pow
err and /. G. Baker, of Fort Benton,
/ were the most prominent, and main
{ tanned a steady trade in buffalo hides
/, and other furs. They had their own
Z hunters, who made tri-weekly raids
t upon the shaggy bison. But they OBJ
tanned most Of their hides from the
Indians, who quickly learned the adj
yantages to be derived from exchang-
ling a buffalo pelt for an ancient mus
t ket, a gaudy trinket, or a jug OF FIRE
E water. The price of a hide was any.
thing from a jug of whisky to six or
seven dollars in money, dependent
lupon the character of the hide and the
shrewdness Of him who sold.
Fifty years ago when the great
d herds OF buffalo roamed the range
lands of the West, there was little
4 chance for cattle to survive. The buff
falo held the range by right of might,
t and lorded over it with arrogance and
unreasoning petulance. The range
! Twas theirs, and they wanted it. But
as time went by, as hunters slew
them in thousands, the buffalo faded
! away, and the range cattle came. In
1870 there were hundreds of thous'
ands of buffalo O Western ranges
In 1874 the ]. G. Baker comapny
!, shipped from their post at Fort Ben
ton, Montana, a total of 100000 buf
( falo hides, in order to secure which
4 the hunters had slain and left to rot
. or to the wolves, tens Of thousands Of
young stock and aged bulls. White
: men slaughtered them for sheer lusi
of slaughter. Parties of European
hunters used to go out and attack the
buffalo, just to see how many they
could shoot in day, leaving their
2 unused ~arcasse to rot on the plains
Otkers have been known to kill them
by the dozens simply to get theii
: tongues for table ~delicacies.
Some time in the late seventies, the
buffalo disappeared; they were exter'
minated. They were slaughtered
~ruthlessly for their hides. and the
Western plains no longer We're profit
Y able to the traders. It is related that
9 traders in the South sent men to the
: North to burn the grass SO that the
? buffalo would not return northWard
2 to breed. It is known that in conser
2 quence of prairie fires. incendiary OF
natural, the buffalo did not return
; during their last years, but roamed the
prairies OF the Yellowstone country,
: where they were finally wiped out
except in widely segregated bands,
: few in number.
The buffalo, or anything pertaining
to them, stand out boldly against the
most picturesque background that
the West affords. being associated
with the Indians, the famous early ex.
plorers and settlers, and historic
spots, with such poetic and dramatic
scenes as may never again be wit
messed. The buffalo will always be
the leading animal character in the
portraying Of the early days in this
country, and for this one thing the