296 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



About August 20, while out with a party hunting mustangs, 

 in the neutral strip about twelve miles north-east of Buffalo 

 Springs, the riders saw four animals, which they supposed were 

 mustangs, as they were rolling in the dust. They were about 

 three miles away, on the south side of a little knoll. The 

 hunters rode around on the north side and got within seventy- 

 five yards, to learn that these were four Buffalo. 



They took alarm at once and started off westward, closely 

 pursued by the hunters for about three miles, and then met an- 

 other man driving a bunch of mustangs. The two bunches, 

 mustangs and Buffalo, joined, and the men chased them for two 

 miles, when they parted, the mustangs turning to the left, 

 keeping up the X I T fence, and the Buffalo going to the right. 

 Allen chased these about five miles farther and right into two of 

 his own party. The Buffalo circled from them south and west 

 three miles back, then right back to the X I T fence again. He 

 fired four shots into a cow. She quit the bunch and went two 

 miles to a lake, while he chased the three right through the X I T 

 fence and left them. The men then returned to the cow at 

 the lake; she ran into the deepest water, and stood at bay. 

 After resting a short time she came out of the water and they 

 shot her. A photographer, who was with the camp, took the 

 pictures of the party with the skin and meat in view. That was 

 the last Buffalo Allen ever saw. He learned that the three 

 were killed later on. 



This ended the last stragglers of the southern herd. 



THE The great northern herd was still in existence after the 



NORTH 



HERD bulk of the southern was wiped out. A colder winter and the 

 presence of hostile Indians, which kept away white hunters, 

 were their chief protections. Hornaday calculates " the north- 

 ern herd at about 1,500,000 in 1870, but most authors put it 

 much higher. The Indians, he reckons, were then slaughtering 

 them at the rate of 375,000 a year. 



In 1876 the United States troops pacified or drove the 

 hostile Indians out of the Missouri country, opening the way 



^' Ext. Am. Bison, 1889, pp. 504-5. 



