Buffalo 267 



seek good crossings of rivers or mountains, or to avoid hostile 

 camps and places of evil memories. Furthermore, there were 

 scattered individuals to be found in all parts of the range at all 

 seasons. 



Theoretically, the BuffaJo must have been migratory. 

 Although it covered a vast region It continued of one species, 

 whereas, it would probably have split up Into several distinct 

 species had not it been continually mixed as a result of migra- 

 tions. 



The chief natural enemies of the Buffalo herds, taking nat- 

 in Inverse order of importance, were blizzards, Wolves, prairie enemies 

 fires, bogs, the Indian, and rivers. Epidemic disease seems 

 to have been unknown among them. 



Hitherto, the blizzard has been entirely ignored as a de- bliz- 



. . . Z\RDS 



stroyer of Bison. My attention was first called to it by Ro- 

 manzo N. Bunn, of Chicago. He brings forward evidence to 

 show that the last great herd Inhabiting the country north of 

 the region between Yankton and Devil's Lake, and between 

 the Big Sioux River and Missouri, was destroyed by the bliz- 

 zard of 1 87 1-2. He states that in the 70's hundreds of thou- 

 sands of Buffalo crossed the Missouri River, going northward, 

 and that they never returned, nor were they accounted for by 

 the hunters. Senator D. L. Pettigrew, of Flandreau, Dakota, 

 informed him that after the terrible winter of 187 1-2, he found 

 herds of Buffalo lying dead in the hollows, evidently buried 

 where they had sought shelter. 



Concerning his own experiences, Bunn writes me: 

 "After months spent in prospecting throughout the 

 Northwest during 1880, I reached a point a few miles to the 

 westward of the Big Sioux River, and settled upon government 

 lands In Kingsbury County, present State of South Dakota. 

 There I noted with astonishment the enormous number of 

 Buffalo skeletons lying bleaching upon the prairies. The adult 

 skeletons were, at that time, In a perfect state of preservation, 

 showing, for the most part, no signs of having been disturbed 



