American Buffalo 



idea, however, may be obtained from the statement of Col. R. I. 

 Dodge, who in 1871 passed through one of the immense herds while 

 travelling in Arkansas. For twenty-five miles he passed through a 

 continuous herd of buffalo. "The whole country appeared one great 

 mass of buffalo, moving slowly to the northward; and it was only 

 when actually among them that it could be ascertained that thp' 

 apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of innumerable 

 small herds of from fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the 

 surrounding herds by greater or less space, but still separated. The 

 herds in the valley sullenly got out of my way, and turning, stared 

 stupidly at me, sometimes at only a few yards' distance. When 1 had 

 reached a point where the hills were no longer more than a mile from 

 the road, the buffalo on the hills seeing an unusual object in their rear, 

 turned, stared an instant, then started at full speed directly toward 

 me, stampeding and bringing with them the numberless herds 

 through which they passed, and pouring down on me all the herds, 

 no longer separated, but one immense compact mass of plunging 

 animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as an avalanche. Reining 

 in my horse I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty 

 yards, when a few well-directed shots split the herd, and sent it 

 pouring off in two streams to the right and left. When all had 

 passed they stopped, apparently perfectly satisfied, many within less 

 than one hundred yards. . . . From the top of Pawnee Rock I could 

 see from six to ten miles in almost every direction. This whole vast 

 space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like a compact 

 mass." * 



From careful information furnished him Mr. Hornaday estimated 

 this herd to comprise at lest four million buffalo. He adds: "Twenty 

 years hence, when not even a bone or buffalo-chip remains above 

 ground throughout the West to mark the presence of the buffalo, it 

 may be difficult for people to believe that the animals ever existed in 

 such numbers as to constitute not only a serious annoyance, but very 

 often a dangerous menace to waggon travel across the plains, and also 

 to stop railway trains and even throw them off the track." f 



Buffalo were indiscriminately polygamous, very much as are 

 domestic cattle, and at the breeding season collected in much more 

 compact herds. The combined bellowing of the bulls at such times 



* " Plains of the Great West." 



t"The Extermination of the American Bison." Report U. S. Nat. Mus. 

 1886-7, an exhaustive treatise from which the substance of this account is taken, 



68 



