THE AMERICAN BISONS. 147 
In July, 1853, Captain Gunnison’s party first met with fresh signs of the 
buffalo on the Saline, and on the Kansas near the mouth of the Saline; their 
first buffalo was killed on the Little Arkansas; somewhat later, they found 
themselves in the midst of immense herds on the Republican Fork.* 
Dr. Hayden, writing of his journey across the plains in the summer of 
1858, says, “ Before going into the interior of the Territory [of Kansas] we 
had expected to find the whole country immediately west of Fort Riley 
_ comparatively sterile; on the contrary, however, we were agreeably disap- 
pointed at meeting with scarcely any indications of decreasing fertility, as 
far as our travels extended, which was about sixty miles west of Fort Riley. 
Here we found the prairies clothed with a luxuriant growth of grass, and 
literally alive with vast herds of buffalo, that were quietly grazing as far as 
the eye could reach, in every direction.” ¢ 
Lieutenant E. S. Godfrey, of the 7th U. 8. Cavalry, who has recently 
spent several years in the Department of the Missouri, informs me that 
when Fort Harker was established, in 1866, the buffaloes ranged regularly 
as far east as this point, and even passed beyond it. They were taken 
here for several years after, but in 1870 had almost wholly retired to points 
further westward. 
Professor B. F. Mudge, of the Kansas State Agricultural College, has given 
me the following general statement respecting their extermination in East- 
ern Kansas. Under date of February 7, 1873, in kind response to my inqui- 
ries, Professor Mudge wrote as follows: 
“The buffalo ranged to the eastern border of Kansas as recently as 1835. 
About that time the United States authorities removed the Delaware, Potta- 
wattamie, Kaws, and other tribes of Indians to ‘ Reservations’ in the eastern 
part of what is now Kansas. These Indians soon drove the buffalo as far 
west as the Blue River (one hundred miles west of the Missouri River), which 
was as far as the reservations extended. The buffalo held that range till 
1854, when Kansas was made a Territory and whites began to settle here. 
For fifteen years from that time the buffalo receded, on an average, about 
ten miles a year. For three years past they have been hunted in summer 
for their hides for ¢anuing; this is exterminating them very rapidly. Now 
they are not found in Northern Kansas east of 100° of longitude; in Southern 
* Beckwith’s Report of Captain Gunnison’s Exploration of the 38th and 39th Parallels, Pacific R. i 
Explorations and Surveys, Vol. II. 
+ Geological Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, p. 122. 
