The Kevin review. [volume] (Kevin, Mont.) 1922-1929, 1923-07-26
A PLEA FOR OUR
VANISHING FRIENDS
OF HORN AND CLAW
BY r. r.. Kilroy

14Odt oAAC q low WCChc d6Op 4 ~
a chair rudely fashioned out of buf
falo horns, the kind one saw so fire.
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 we'll as to me
we're 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
were 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
were found on every ranch. Russell
and I 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 across
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
a bunch, they drifted south from
Canada in the winter and shared
with the buffalo the succulent bunch
grass OF the prairie. Essentially a
plains animal, the antelope was driv-
en- out by the encroaching tide of
5quatters 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
shy and proverbially swift, he
SOON passes out of the landscape I'M
ii today when men see an antelope
hey talk of it as one might talk of
seeing a ghost.
The caribou is also almost extinct
not longer than 80 a 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
ow lies was ono a favorite rendez-
GUS for this king of all graminivor-
us 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.
The lynx, that big striped and .
wild cat with tasse1s on his )
ars and snow shoes fitted to his !
,gs, is also getting scarce. The de-
land by milady for lynx fur has :
elped to decimate the breed. Mon
was also once the habitat for !
red fox and his smaller, speedier !
rother, the swife. Now both are :
zen only in the remotest regions and :
very rarely. Fashion has help
! to make speedy his exit, too. :
Among the other predatory ami -
ais, the grizzly bear, the wolverine, +
the otter are fast disappearing.
he marten and the mink are still y
'und, the former in the depths of .
lie forest reserves and the latter !,
ong secluded streams. The wolf =
Id the coyote hold their W pretty 4
ell, as does the black and brown q
both being of the same family.
white or cotton-tail deer is also q
und in abundance, but the black q
IL, who frequents the more open a.
untry of the foothills and forest a
.rks is also become extremely rare. h
Fleet of foot and fortunate In in =
the high areas of the noun
in ranges, the sheep and goat are 3,
Ill fairly numerous in their own n
II,
But it is not the quadrupeds alone .,
at are leaving us. l remember -
len fleets of great white swans q,
uld be 9 lazily drifting on a =,
miner day on Flathead, Macdonald q,
Pend d'Oreille lake. What a
autiful picture they made! How 70
aJestically they moved on the mir 10
red surface of the water. te
"The swan on still st. Mary's lake o,
Floats double, swan and shadow" a.
+ -
They are gone. The gasoline boat, :
, pump-gun and the ruthless game I'll