84 



THE MUSEUM. 



"He has a splendid honk, hasn't 

 he?" inquired the agent. "There is 

 no doubt about the matter," said Haw- 

 kins. "Do you think Mr. Smith 

 would sell it.^" "W-h-a-a-t.-"" exclaim- 

 ed the Long Islander who began to 

 think his questioner either demented 

 or a singularly sober jester. "Why I 

 should like to buy it if Mr. Smith 

 would sell it reasonably," was the 

 agent's serious reply. Hawkins, who 

 was a quick-witted fellow, saw that 

 the agent had been imposed upon in 

 some way. "See here, if this was the 

 1st of April I would understand you. 

 But even if it is the middle of Decem- 

 ber you have been senc on a fool's 

 errand by somebody. A 'honk' isn't 

 an animal, it's the cry with which the 

 gunners call wild geese to the stools, " 



Glenville, N. Y. 



Extermination of the Buffalo. 



The game of the West has rapidly 

 disappeared before the hunter's rifle. 

 It is a fair estimate that four mil- 

 lion buffaloes were killed within 

 the five years between 1874 and 

 1879, from what was known as 

 the Southern herd, which roamed 

 through northern Texas, the Indian 

 Territory, Kansas and Nebraska. Be- 

 tween 1878 and 18S3, the great North- 

 ern herd — quite as numerous — roam- 

 ing through the Dakotas, Wyoming 

 and Montana, were destroyed in like 

 manner. The hunters received on an 

 average from $2.50 to $3.50 per hide, 

 to be shipped out of the country and 

 sold for leather making, belting, har- 

 ness, and kindred purposes. Many 

 thousands of men were engaged in this 

 enterprise. The most successful hunt- 

 ing parties consisted of a hunter and 

 about six men known as strippers. The 



time usually selected for taking the buf- 

 faloes was just after they had been graz- 

 ing'in the morning, had gone to the wat- 

 er and then returned to the high ground, 

 lying down to rest in bunches of from 

 twenty to a hundred. The hunter, 

 with the longest range rifle of the 

 heaviest caliber he could obtain, would 

 fire from the leeward side, so far away 

 that the crack of the rifle could not be 

 heard by the buffalo, and being be- 

 hind a bush or bunch of grass, could 

 not be seen. In that way he would 

 kill from a dozen to a hundred a day, 

 without disturbing the herd to any 

 great extent. The buffalo receiving a 

 mortal wound would bleed to death, 

 while the others about him, smelling 

 the blood, would soiiiet mts come near 

 him and paw the ground, and so stand 

 until they too would receive their 

 death wounds. The strippers would 

 then come on with ox teams, take off 

 the hides, place them in the wagons, 

 and transport them to the nearest rail- 

 road station whence they were shipped 

 to market. At one station alone on 

 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe 

 Railroad as many as 750,000 hides 

 were shipped in one year. 



After the hides were removed, the 

 carcass would be poisoned in many 

 cases, some yearling buffalo being gen- 

 erally selected, and next morning 

 there might be found forty or fifty 

 dead wolves lying scattered around, 

 victims of strychinne. In this way 

 large game was rapidly destroyed, to- 

 gether with countless numbers of 

 wolves that had thrived only by prey- 

 ing upon them. This might seem like 

 cruelty and wasteful extravagance, 

 but the buffalo, like the Indian, stood 

 in the way of civilization and the path 

 of progress, and the decree had gone 



