American Big-Game Hunting 



Wyoming, and most of New Mexico they were 

 abundant, and probably common over a large 

 part of Utah, and perhaps in northern Nevada. 

 So far as now known, their western limit was 

 the Blue Mountains of Oregon and the eastern 

 foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. 



Thus it will be seen that the buffalo once 

 ranged over a large part of the American 

 continent, — Dr. Allen says one third of it, — 

 but it must not be imagined that they were 

 always present at the same time in every part 

 of their range. They were a wandering race, 

 sometimes leaving a district and being long 

 absent, and again returning and occupying it 

 for a considerable period. What laws or what 

 impulses governed these movements we can- 

 not know. Their wandering habits were well 

 understood by the Indians of the Western 

 plains, who depended upon the buffalo for 

 food. It was their custom to follow the herds 

 about, and when, as sometimes occurred, these 

 moved away and could not be found, the In- 

 dians were reduced to great straits for food, 

 and sometimes even starved to death. 



Under natural conditions the buffalo was an 

 animal of rather sluggish habits, mild, inoffen- 

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