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184 



THE AMEEICAIT BISOXS. 



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plains or spent much time in the biifFalo country has also called attention tO; 

 this exterminating slaughter/ and predicted their complete annihilation at no 

 very distant date. Some writers believed twenty or thirty years ago that 

 they would hardly survive to the present time unless protected by the gov- 



ernment. 



Dr. Leidy, in 1852, says : "The day is not far distant when it [the buffalo] 



will become quite extinct, tmless protected by a mimificent republic, as has 



been done by the Emperor of Kussia in the case of the aurochs, or European 



bison,"* Professor Baird, writing at about the same time, says: "Still, vast 



as these herds are, their numbers are much less than in earher times, and 



they are diminishing with fearful rapidity. Every year sees more or less 



change in this respect, as well as alterations of their, great line of travel,, 



. . . . If it were possible to enforce gameJaws, or any other laws on the 



prairies, it would be well to attach the most stringent penalties against the 



barbarous practice of killing buffalo merely for the sport, or perhaps for the 



tono-ues alone. Thousands are killed every year in this way. After all, 



however, it is perhaps the Indian himself who commits the mischief most 



wantonly."! 



General W. F. Eaynolds, in his report of his Exploration of the Yellow- 

 stone in 1859 and 1860, thus refers to this matter: I "And here I would 

 remark, that the wholesale destruction of the buffalo is a matter that should 

 receive the attention of the proper authorities. It is due to the fact that the 



'female 



The skin of the male over 



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three years old is never used for that purpose, the hair on the hind quarters 

 being not longer than that on a horse, while on the fore quarters it has a 

 length of from four to six inches. The skin is also too thick and heavy to 

 be used for anything but lodge coverings, while the flesh is coarse and 

 impalatable, and is never used for food when any other can be had. The 

 result is that the females are always singled out by the hunter, and conse- 

 quently the males in a herd always exceed the females, in the proportion of 

 ten to one. Another, but fer less important cause of their extinction is the 

 immense number of wolves in the country, which destroy the young, 

 only remedy that would have the slightest effect in the case would be a pro- 

 hibition of the trade of buffalo-robes, and a premium upon wolf-skins. I fear 



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* Mem. Extinct Species of American Ox, p. 4 (Smith. Contrib., Vol. V, Art. iii). 



t Pat. Oif. Rep., Agricult., 1851 - 52, Part IT, p. 125. ; 



t Exploration of tlie Yellowstone, p. 11, publislied in 18G8. 



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