A Sportsman 161 



be exterminated. All but a few which your friend the 

 white man shall exhibit in the circus fields or in wire- 

 bound parks. 



In the buffalo was exhibited the most stupendous 

 feature of large wild animal life ever shown upon the face 

 of the globe, and in later ages it will appear almost 

 incredible to the belief of the reader of history that a 

 condition could have existed to have allowed so many 

 millions of these huge animals to roam at will over 

 the expanse of the greater part of the North American 

 continent; that in modern days masses of buffalo 

 containing from ten thousand to one hundred thou- 

 sand could be viewed from a single standpoint; that 

 days were consumed by travellers in patient waiting 

 for more than a million of these magnificent animals 

 to pass away before them; likewise to learn that in a 

 brief space of a dozen years from such a condition, a 

 practical extinction of these mammoth creatures oc- 

 curred. It is a spectacle of grand, marvellous, and 

 pathetic interest. 



Coincidental with the passing of the buffalo was 

 that of the plains Indians. Stretching from the Missis- 

 sippi River to the mountainous backbone of the con- 

 tinent in our day were successive tribes of Indians 

 which have all disappeared. Their very existence was 

 woven in with that of the buffalo. The real great pro- 

 tector of the Indians was the buffalo, which supplied 

 food, raiment, and shelter. And with the passing of 

 these two great elements of nature, what is left to 

 show their existence ? Nothing but a few rude Indian 

 hieroglyphics on the face of rocks and a few mud wal- 

 lowing pits of the buffalo. Even the bones of the 

 buffalo are not in evidence, all gathered up in the eager 



