300 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



The partners proposed to gather the Buffalo wool and use 

 it as a substitute for that of the sheep. Undoubtedly the wool 

 in question will make a good, servicable cloth, but the difficulty 

 of getting the raw material in quantity and, above all, the mad 

 mismanagement of the enterprise, ended all in a disastrous 

 collapse. 



Ross informs us (p. 72) that a yard of the cloth fetching 

 41 and dd [^1.08] in England cost £2 los [^12.00] to make on 

 Red River. 



CENSUS How many Buffalo, both wild and domesticated, all told 



are now living ? This is a question put by all who are inter- 

 ested in the subject. For a clear expression of their numbers, 

 their decline, and the rescue of the survivors, I shall set the 

 various figures in column: 



Estimate of the Buffalo in primitive days .... 60,000,000 



" " " 1800 40,000,000 



" " " 1850 20,000,000 



Dr. W. T. Hornaday's estimate 1870 5,500,000^" 



Miller Christy's census (of which 



200 were in captivity) . . . 1888 1,300®* 



Dr. W. T. Hornaday's census 



(wild 635; captive in America 



256; in Yellowstone Park 200) 1889 1,091*' 



About 1895 they probably reached a minimum of . . 800 



Mark Sullivan's census in . . . 1900 1,024 '^^ 



S. P. Langley's census Feb. 6, 1902 1,394*^ 



Dr. Frank Baker's census . . 1903 i5753^ 



1905 1,697*^ 



Dr. W. T. Hornaday's census . 1908 2,047" 



^ Ext. Am. Bison, p. 504. 



^' "The Last of the Buffaloes," London Field, November 10, 1888, p. 697. 

 *^Ext. Am. Bison, 1889, p. 525. 



^ "The Buffalo Still Lives," Boston Evening Transcript, October 10, 1900. 

 ** Am. Bison in U. S. and Canada, U. S. Dept. Int., 57th Congress, ist Sess., Senate 

 Doc. No. 445, pp. 38-39. 



*^ Stat. Am. Bison, 1905, Nat. Zool. Park, Smithsonian Institution. 

 ^ Stat. Am. Bison, 1906, Nat. Zool. Park, Smithsonian Institution. 

 ^' Rep. Am. Bison Soc, 1908, p. 74. 



