CHAPTER VIII. 



THE LORDLY BUFFALO. 



ONE forever are the mighty herds 

 of the lordly buffalo. A few 

 solitary individuals and small 

 bands are still to be found scat- 

 tered here and there in the 

 wilder parts of the plains ; and 

 though most of these will be 

 very soon destroyed, others will 

 for some years fight off their doom and 

 lead a precarious existence either in remote and almost 

 desert portions of the country near the Mexican frontier, 

 or else in the wildest and most inaccessible fastnesses of 

 the Rocky Mountains ; but the great herds, that for the 

 first three quarters of this century formed the distinguish- 

 ing and characteristic feature of the Western plains, have 

 vanished forever. 



It is only about a hundred years ago that the white man, 



in his march westward, first encroached upon the lands of 



241 



