The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1923-07-26
A PLEA FOR OUR
VANISHING FRIENDS
OF HORN AND CLAW
BY r. r. Kilroy

a chair rudely fashioned out OF buff
falo horns, the kind one saw so ire
Quently in and around Montana's In
dian agencies a quarter of a century
ago. The sight of it simultaneously
recalled memories of scenes and in
cidents that to Russ, as well as to me,
were vivid, picturesque and some
what romantic. There were the great
mounds of buffalo bones piled by the
Indians and sold to the post-trader
for shipment to fertilizing plants. In
every pile were scores of buffalo
skulls such as Russ now uses as the
insignia of his craft. In many of
them a ragged hole told the tale of
the hunters accuracy. Occasionally
one found a skull with outer horns
remarkably preserved, black as
ebony, shiny and pointed. These
we're worth carrying off and from
them the Indians made the quaint
chairs.
A head-and-tail robe was even
then a rarity, but plain buffalo robes
We're found on every ranch. Russell
and / both came to Montana just be-
hind the buffalo and a little ahead
of the sheep, but both enjoyed the
acquaintance of many an old-timer
who Swung a gun" on the big herds
that used to hold up navigation on
the Missouri as they swarmed acros
its muddy current back of the Bear
Paws and the Little Rockies.
From buffalo the conversation
drifted to the other game that has
become wholly or partially extinct.
In the days when the old levee at
Fort Benton was piled high with
pelts awaiting shipment on steamers
to st. Louis, there were large bands
of antelope in Montana. Hundreds
in a bunch, they drifted south from
Canada in the winter and shared
with the buffalo the s%ucculent bunch
grass of the prairie. Essentially a
plains animal, the antelope was driv-
en- out by the encroaching tide of
squatters and homesteaders on the
public domain. Unlike the deer, the
elk and the moose, the antelope does !
not take to the shelter of the forest ]
the recesses of the mountain. Gu ]
-ious, shy and proverbially swift, he !
passes out of the landscape un- I
ii today when men see an antelope {
hey talk of it as n might talk of 7
Ieeing a ghost. I
The caribou is also almost extinct =,
not longer than 80 years ago, !:
,reat herds of them ranged back and /;
orth across the Canadian line. The :
moose is another of our first Amer :
cans who has fled from the eviden- !;
'es of civilization. Not far from :
where the Anaconda Country club =,
lies was once a ~favorite rendez- :
vous for this king of all graminivor- :
JUS animals. True, he is, like the !
.ntelope, the caribou and the elk, :
rejected, but his days are numbered :
nd the next generation will proba- !;
ly know him only in the corridors of :.
he museum. u
The lynx, that big striped and ;,
wild cat with tassels on his =
ars and snow shoes fitted to his =
'gs, is also getting scarce. The de- r
land by milady for lynx fur has "
elped to decimate the breed. Nom
was also once the habitat for e
lie red fox and his smaller, speedier ~
the swife. Now both are -
cen only in the remotest regions and "
very rarely. Fashion has help
/ to make speedy his exit, too. ".
Among the other predatory ami m
-als, the grizzly bear, the wolverine, 70
nd the otter are fast disappearing.
he marten and the mink are still mr.
'und, the former in the depths of D.
lie forest reserves and the latter is
.ong secluded streams. The wolf nv
the coyote hold their own pretty n
ell, as does the black and brown Of
both being of the same family.
ne white or cotton-tail deer is also ga
und in abundance, but the black of
il, who frequents the more open co
'untry of the foothills and forest on
Lrks is also become extremely rare. bv
Fleet of foot and fortunate in in nj
the high areas of the noun
in ranges, the sheep and goat are sb
i'll fairly numerous in their own Th
az
But it is not the quadrupeds alone %
at are leaving US. / remember tyu
hen fleets of great white swans ar.
uld be seen lazily drifting on a of
miner day on Flathead, Macdonald az,
Pend d'Oreille lake. What a
picture they madel How fan
ajestically they moved on the mir 20,
red surface of the water. tae
THE swan on still st. Mary's lake an,
Floats double, swan and shadow" az
+
They are gone. The gasoline boat, -
e pump-gun and the ruthless game the
g have made them almost extinct. fea
liy a few years ago l saw on the the
of Pend d'Oreille the remains we