A Sportsman 159 



At this period, although the stage line was pretty 

 well protected from the attacks of Indians, the Smoky 

 River route was more dangerous, as the Indians were 

 more or less about there hunting buffalo for their win- 

 ter's supply of meat. This meat, cut in narrow strips 

 and sun-dried, had good keeping quality for months 

 if kept dry. All the teams as they came along were 

 held up by government officials, who compelled an 

 aggregation of at least one hundred men with each 

 caravan before allowing a departure. Printed regula- 

 tions were distributed requiring an organization among 

 the men of each outfit, giving rules of proceedings for 

 the election of officers and general management; how 

 to establish picket guards in dangerous localities, and 

 how to provide against attacks. These regulations 

 were important and generally observed. 



We had not proceeded many days before we came 

 into the buffalo range, and struck the flank of an im- 

 mense herd proceeding northward, from which several 

 were killed for use of the caravan. The following day 

 we were in the midst of immense numbers stretched 

 over the plains in all directions. A marvellous sight, 

 one which would impress an observer with the belief 

 that it would hardly be possible to have such numbers 

 exterminated in the brief space of a few years. The 

 building of the Union Pacific and the Kansas Pacific 

 railroads sealed the doom of the buffalo. With the 

 invasion of thousands of hunters brought upon the 

 buffalo grounds by these railroads, who sought no 

 more than the skins of the slain as their reward, who 

 found the buffalo defenceless, without shelter from 

 attack, and of too slow and cumbrous action to escape, 

 it is not surprising that they soon disappeared. 



