Hunting in the Cattle Country 



They were migratory, and at times almost all 

 of them might leave ; but, on the whole, they 

 were the most abundant of the game animals. 

 In 1 88 1 they were still almost as numerous as 

 ever. In 1883 all were killed but a few strag- 

 glers, and the last of these stragglers that I 

 heard of as seen in our immediate neighbor- 

 hood was in 1885. The second game animal 

 in point of abundance was the blacktail. It 

 did not go out on the prairies, but in the 

 broken country adjoining the river it was far 

 more plentiful than any other kind of game. 

 It is greatly reduced in numbers now. Black- 

 tail were not much slaughtered until the buf- 

 falo began to give out, say in 1882; but they 

 are probably now not a twentieth as plentiful 

 as they were in that year. Elk were plentiful 

 in 1880, though never anything like as abun- 

 dant as the buffalo and the blacktail. Only 

 straggling parties or individuals have been 

 seen since 1883. The last I shot near my 

 ranch was in 1886; but two or three have 

 been shot since, and a cow and calf were seen, 

 chased and almost roped by the riders on the 

 round-up in the fall of 1893. Doubtless one 

 or two still linger even yet in inaccessible 

 places. Whitetail were never as numerous 



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