Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1928-11-22

bAcOll u Will Wp<Ai
behring's. III trade paths aiken from the
Gulf into Tennessee, and further north
were simply widened buffalo trails.
Most Of us are familiar with the APP
pearance of buffalo, and there are pio-
neers still living who have seen the plains
inc foothills OF eastern Montana COW
cred with immense herds OF these n
mails. Robert Vaughn, in his book. Then
and Now" speaks of seeing hundreds
of them where is now the city Of Great
Falls. Visitors to Yellowstone park, or the
Flathead valley, can view them today in
a comparatively wild state, and zoologi-
cal gardens preserve specimens in con-
finement.
Id their migrations they naturally
sought the easiest route over plains and
through mountains. Our buffalo did not
remain in Montana the year round. Late
autumn saw them wandering south to-
wards the warmer Platte valley, or even
farther south, and spring brought them
north again.
Followed the Grass
1t was not the heat that governed
their migrations; they soon exhausted
the feed in one section, then had to
move on or starve. We are told by those
who were first here, that after the buf
falo passed over the ground they left 1t
bare. The grasses on which they sub
sisted were gramma, buffalo grass, wild
oats, purple bunch grass, another bunch
grass, and blue stem. OF these one OF
the most valuable, according to DIR.
Hornaday, who has written a book on
the buffalo, is the purple bunch grass.
Although buffalo ono ranged almost
from the Atlantic to the Rocky noun
tains, their real home was on the great
western plains. going as far north as
northeastern Mexico, west into Utah and
New Mexico, and Idaho, and north to the
Great Slave Lake"
How many of our readers know where
buffalo were first seen by Europeans?
1t is a piece of information recently
gained by myself, which / pass on to
others, believing 1t will be of interest
to them. They were found in the ex-
tensive menagerie maintained by Monte
yuma. This was in 1923, and the ques-
ton is, how did they get there as they
were our only in northern Mexico.
They could not have been carried, as
the Aztecs had nc wheeled vehicles, and
they must lave proved difficult to drive.
De Soles, In 1924, says of buffalo in
his notes: THE greatest rarity is the
Mexican Bull. a wonderful composition
of divers animals. 1t has crooked Shout
ders. with a Bunch on it's Back like a
Camel; it's F1anks dry, its Tail large,
and it's neck covered with hair like a
lion, it's head armed like that Of a Bull,
which it resembles in fierceness, with
no less strength agility" This de-
scription, accompanied by the earliest
sketches of the buffalo, must have made
q great impression on the Europeans
who were fortunate enough to see them.
Cabeza a Them In 1880
The first white man, it is thought,
who saw buffalo in a wild state was
Cabeza, who, having been wrecked in
1880 on the Gulf coast east Of the mouth
of the Mississippi, wandered through
Texas and found buffalo in the eastern
portion of hat state. He liked the u
falo meat, and noted that the Indians
made blankets of those buffalo that
are not full OWL and of the larger
they make shoes and bucklers."
Coronado, In 1912, was the next to see
buffalo in Texas. This was in the Texas
panhandle, which, he said, sis full Of
crooked backed oxen, as the Mountains
Serena in Spaine is OF sheepe."
This wonderful combination animal
was also described by another Spaniard,
and his account has been translated by
w. w. Davis, in his Spanish Conquest
of New Mexico" 1t reads: They have a
broad and short face, eyes two palms from
each other, and projecting in such q
manner sideways that they can see a
pursuer. Their beard is like that Of
goats and 81 long that 1T drags the
ground when they lower the head. They
nave on the anterior portion of the body