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THE AMEEICAF EISOE"S. 



147 



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In Juljj ISSSj Captain Gunnison's party first met with fresh signs of the 

 buffalo on the Sahne^ and on the Kansas near the mouth of the Sahnej 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 Eiley 

 comparatively sterile ; on the contrary, however, we w^ere 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 Eiley. 

 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." f 



Lieutenant E. S. Godfrey, of the 7th U. S. Cavalry, who has recently 

 spent several years in the Department of the Missouri, informs me that 

 when Fort Harker was established, in 18G6, the buffaloes ranged regularly 

 as far east as this point, and even passed beyond it. They were 

 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 Lidians to ^Reservations' in the eastern 

 part of what is now Kansas. These Indians soon drove the buffalo as far 

 w^est as the Blue River (one hundred miles west of the Missouri River), which 

 was as flir as the reservations extended. The bufftdo held that range till 

 1854, w^hen 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 tanning ; this is exterminating them very rapidly. Now 

 they are not found in Northern Kansas east of 100° of longitude; in Southern 



W 





* Beckwith's Keport of Captain Gunnison's Exploration of the SStli and 39th Parallels, Pacific K. K 



Explorations and Surveys, A^ol. II. 



t Geolon'ical Report of the Exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, p. 122. 



