The Lordly Buffalo 263 



some particular island or group of islands ; while the 

 huge buffalo, in countless myriads, ranged over the 

 greater part of a continent. Its nearest relative, 

 the Old World aurochs, formerly found all through 

 the forests of Europe, is almost as near the verge 

 of extinction, but with the latter the process has 

 been slow, and has extended over a period of a 

 thousand years, instead of being compressed into a 

 dozen. The destruction of the various larger spe 

 cies of South African game is much more local, 

 and is proceeding at a much slower rate. It may 

 truthfully be said that the sudden and complete 

 extermination of the vast herds of the buffalo is 

 without a parallel in historic times. 



No sight is more common on the plains than that 

 of a bleached buffalo skull ; and their countless num 

 bers attest the abundance of the animal at a time 

 not so very long past. On these portions where the 

 herds made their last stand, the carcasses, dried in 

 the clear, high air, or the mouldering skeletons, 

 abound. Last year, in crossing the country around 

 the heads of the Big Sandy, O Fallon Creek, Little 

 Beaver, and Box Alder, these skeletons or dried 

 carcasses were in sight from every hillock, often 

 lying over the ground so thickly that several score 

 could be seen at once. A ranchman who at the 

 same time had made a journey of a thousand miles 

 across northern Montana, along the Milk River, 

 told me that, to use his own expression, during the 

 whole distance he was never out of sight of a dead 

 buffalo, and never in sight of a live one. 



