Year: 1876

them, and making these highways


the bases of their operations, begun


an exterminating war upon the vast


herds, which ceased only with the


supply of victims. In three or four
years the buffaloes were swept from


the country Immediately adjoining


these roads; nearly all being sacri-


feed for their hiaes, which, at most,


are orlh but little more than the


cost of gathering. 1t is said that
during the season of 1928, not


less than two thousand hunters


were engaged in hunting the buffalo


along the line of the Atchison, To-


peka & Santa Fe railroad alone; and


that during this year not less than


two hundred and fifty thousand buff


faloes were slain, simply for their


hides, their careasses being left un-


touched on the plains. In few


years the buffaloes were wholly an


initiated over hundreds of square


miles of territory; and now, as if to


hide even the evidence of their for


mer existence there, their very bones


are being gathered up and shipped


to cas- ern markets for the manufac-


ture of manurial phosphates. The


best available statistics indicate an


average annual destruction OF be-


tween three and four millions for


the last thirty or forty years. At


this rate of decrease it is evident


that the complete determination of
the buffalo will be soon effected, and
thus an animal which, but a few
years since, was the most numerous
of its size in the world, will be swept
out of existence.


The American bison, with his huge
bulk, his immense, shaggy name,
and peculiarly vicious-looking eyes,
presents far more formidable and
dangerous aspect than his real char
acter warrants, he being in reality
timid ana inoffensive. With lower
cred head and sullen mien, the old
bulls will face an approaching enc
my with a great show of determina-
ton and bravery, only to flee most
ignominiously if their threatening
demonstrations fail to appall their
assailant. Indeed, ones nerve is put
severely TO the test when approach
ing a herd of these formidable-look-
ing beasts for the first time. Only
when wounded, however, and very
sorely pressed, will they turn
upon their pursuer; and then woe be
to the luckless horse and rider, or
the more helpless footman, if they
fail to escape the onslaught of one
of these furious beasts. Ordinarily,
however, they are far less danger
Gus to encounter than the half wild
domestic cattle of the Texas plains.


Like most bovine animals, the BIZ
son is sluggish and stupid, lacking
in great measure the sagacity that
so efectually protects most wild ami
mails, and he hence falls an easy prey
to his human foes. If the hunter is
careful to approach the herd from
the leeward, he usually has little diff
fculty in getting near it, the bison
being not easily frightened by the
sight of man or by the report of fire.
arms, while the scent of an enemy,
if unseen and mile distant, will
set them fleeing in headlong haste.





1t thus happens that the hunter,
in stalking the buffalo, approaches
easily within close range, even with
out cover, by simply creeping on the
ground; and with a breech-loading
arm, loading without rising, often
succeeds in killing from five or six to
a score or more, before the herd Fl
nally takes to fight. If it slightly
recede, the hunter creeps up under
cover of the slain, and continues his
murderous work. So Indifferent are
the buffaloes to the death of their
companions, or so stupidity uncon-
scious of what shas befallen them,
that they will not only stand and see
them shot down around them, but
the living have been known to play
fully gore the dead, so little do they
comprehend the situation. A single
hunter will often kill fifteen to thir-
ty at single ''stand," and some
times sixty to eighty in day. A
hunter who acts as shooter for the
party to which he belongs, will fre-
quently kill two thousand to three
thousand in single season.


A moving herd of buffaloes will
blindly follow their leaders, those in
the rear pressing on unconscious of
the danger into which they some-
times force their comrades at the
front. Herds thus rush into the
pounds prepared for their destruc-
ton by the Indians, or are decoyed
by the same willy foes to the Drinks
of precipices, the presence of which
those at the front discover too late
to avoid, being pressed on by the
main body of the panic-strieken
herd, who in turn, follow their lead
ers in the unlooked-for fatal leap.


Again, in crossing treacherous
streams, whole herds viii heedlessly
rush into the quicksands, or with
similar blindness dash across the
track of an approaching railway
train. It has hence been said, and
with some degree of truth, that the
buffalo is only endowed with the
smallest degree of instinct, and that
this little seems rather to lead him
into difficulties than out of them
This, however, is not quite true, since
the blind rushing of herd into dan
ger results not so much from the
stupidity of those in the front ranks
as from their inability to turn aside
after the danger is discovered, in
consequence of the irresistible mass
behind, unconscious of danger, fore
ing them onward.


As may be well imagined, the hab-
its of the buffaloes, in their undis-
turbed daily lives, are not far differ
ent from those of grazing herds of
domestic cattle. They indulge in
similar gambols, and, when belliger
ent, in similar clustering demOnstra-
tions. The bulls are excessively
fond of paving the ground and of
throwing up the earth on their horns,
which they readily accomplish by
-