118 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



animals and packing the skins for shipment to the east, where 

 they were sold for $1.50 each. And this is the story in brief of 

 the passing of the bufTalo. 



That night around the camp fire the old chief in charge of 

 the Indian hunting party said to his young men: "These 

 white men are going to kill off these buffaloes, and if we want 

 any of them for our children or our gr^andchildren to even look 

 at, we must take them home and raise them in our own country." 

 The young men could scarcely believe this prediction. They 

 did not think all the white men in the world could ever kill off 

 all those millions of buffaloes; but the counsel of the old chief 

 prevailed, and when the hunt had ended and the Indians had 

 loaded their hundred or more ponies with dried meat and were 

 ready to go home a party of young men went out and roped 

 three little calves. These were carried over the mountains on 

 the ponies. In their own country the Indians had some domes- 

 tic cows that they had bought from the white men. They taught 

 the calves to nurse them. The little fellows grew rapidly. In 

 three years they were big, husky brutes and began to increase 

 in number. You remember it was in '73 that the Indians took 

 the calves over there. I was in that Flathead valley in '82, 

 nine years later, and I found there this magnificent herd of 35 

 head of buffaloes (indicating), all sprung from that humble 

 beginning, from those three little calves that were carried over 

 the main range of the Rockies on the hurricane decks of the 

 Indian cayuses. And that herd kept on growing until in 1907 

 those Indians sold and delivered to the Canadian Government 

 600 head of buffaloes; and there are over 100 head still running 

 wild in that Flathead valley. 



I wish I had time to tell you all about the making of this 

 picture. But it is too long a story. The animals were as wild 

 as any herd ever was on their native plains, and it took me five 

 hours of careful, patient stalking to get within 50 yards of them, 

 at which distance the picture was made. 



This is simply another of the many object lessons that have 

 been given to the world as to what may be done with a small 

 remnant of wild life if you will only take care of it. 



Since the buffalo is wiped off the map as a game animal, 

 the moose is considered by most hunters as the greatest prize 

 left for them; and many hunters go every year to' Maine, or to 

 Canada,. or to Alaska, to hunt moose. 



