270 Hunting Trips on the Prairie 



and become able to support cattle for, in some cases 

 two, in others three, seasons. Every buffalo needed 

 as much food as an ox or cow; and if the former 

 abounded, the latter perforce would have to be 

 scarce. Above all, the extermination of the buf 

 falo was the only way of solving the Indian ques 

 tion. As long as this large animal of the chase 

 existed, the Indians simply could not be kept on 

 reservations, and always had an ampk supply of 

 meat on hand to support them in the event of a 

 war; and its disappearance was the only method 

 of forcing them to at least partially abandon their 

 savage mode of life. From the standpoint of hu 

 manity at large, the extermination of the buffalo 

 has been a blessing. The many have been benefited 

 by it; and I suppose the comparatively few of us 

 who would have preferred the continuance of the 

 old order of things, merely for the sake of our own 

 selfish enjoyment, have no right to complain. 



The buffalo is easier killed than is any other kind 

 of plains game; but its chase is far from being the 

 tame amusement it has been lately represented. It 

 is genuine sport; it needs skill, marksmanship, and 

 hardihood in the man who follows it, and if he 

 hunts on horseback, it needs also pluck and good 

 riding. It is in no way akin to various forms of 

 so-called sport in vogue in parts of the East, such as 

 killing deer in a lake or by fire hunting, or even by 

 watching at a runway. No man who is not of an 

 adventurous temper, and able to stand rough food 

 and living, will penetrate to the haunts of the buf- 



