74 



BUFFALO, OR BISON. EXTERMINATION OF THE. 



India. European manufacturers have begun 

 to order large quantities of the dried plant, one 

 French firm alone receiving 890 bales of it. 



Early in 1887 two valuable new plants were 

 discovered in the municipality of Jaboticabal 

 in the province of Sao Paulo. One belongs to 

 the family of Euphorbiacece, and furnishes India- 

 rubber ; while the other belongs to the family 

 of Fraxinelem, the resinous secretions from 

 which resemble the Italian manna. 



Explorations. Two Brazilian engineers, Dr. 

 Paulo de Frontin and Dr. Julio Paranugua, ex- 

 plored during the summer the Rio das Velhas, 

 one of the chief tributaries of the San Fran- 

 cisco river, and its basin. The Rio das Velhas 

 through the greater portion of its course is ob- 

 structed by waterfalls and rapids, 200 of which 

 the explorers passed in a canoe during the nine 

 days of their navigation to a point where the 

 Velhas flows into the San Francisco. The 

 object of the trip was to ascertain whether by 

 means of a series of blastings these obstacles 

 could not be removed. In March, 1887, the 

 members of a German scientific exploring ex- 

 pedition arrived at Rio, intending to explore the 

 Xingu river, a tributary of the Amazon. See 

 " Brazil," by C. C. Andrews (New York, 1887). 



BUFFALO, OR BISON, EXTERMINATION OF THE. 

 At the conclusion of the civil war in 1865 the 

 range of the bison, or buffalo, as they are more 

 commonly named (Bos Americamis). extended 

 from well within the British possessions on 

 the north to the Staked Plains of Texas on 

 the south. They were found as far east as 

 Kansas, and westward to the Pacific slope, 

 and their numbers were estimated at from six 

 to ten million, an estimate which in the light 

 of subsequent statistics does not appear to 

 have been excessive. The general introduc- 

 tion of breech-loading firearms, and the open- 

 ing of the Union Pacific Railway across the 

 continent in 1889, began the most wantonly 

 wasteful slaughter of valuable wild animals 

 that has ever occurred through human agency. 

 Sportsmen are responsible for but a small por- 

 tion of this destruction, though they too should 

 bear their share of the blame, since many of 

 them killed merely for the sake of killing. The 

 real exterminators of the bison were the fur- 

 traders, who saw their opportunity of market- 

 ing countless hides at small initial outlay. They 

 organized hunts on a large scale. The best 

 hunters on the plains were engaged to kill as 

 many and as rapidly as possible, and with the 

 aid of repeating-rifles the slaughter was car- 

 ried on during all the months when the hide 

 was in a marketable condition. The hunters 

 were systematically followed up by a corps of 

 men with the necessary tools and wagons, who, 

 with the aid of mules, literally pulled off the 

 skin, which was at once salted and packed for 

 transportation. In this way the skinners and 

 packers could keep up with the hunters, who, 

 mounted on fleet horses, hung upon the flanks 

 of the great herds and kept up a ceaseless fu- 

 sillade with the best of modern firearms. 



The Union Pacific Railway divided the great 

 continental herd of bison into sections, which 

 were thereafter known respectively as the 

 northern and southern herds. The former 

 ranged over Montana, the town of Glendive 

 marking about the center of the range, and the 

 latter sought the Staked Plains of Texas. The 

 completion of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 

 Fe, and of the Kansas and Northern Pacific 

 railroads opened the whole buffalo country, 

 and enabled their enemies to attack the prey 

 in flank and rear. 



In 1872-'73 the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa 

 Fe road transported 459,463 buffalo-hides, and 

 the Kansas Pacific and Northern Pacific rail- 

 roads probably transported each as many more 

 exact figures are lacking making a total of 

 more than a million and a quarter liides. Mr. 

 T. W. Hornaday, of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, says, that during these early years of the 

 war of extermination, the hunters and packers 

 were so careless that not more than one hide 

 in three was delivered to the railroads. In 

 other words, the total of buffaloes slaughtered 

 numbered 4,000,000. From 1874 onward the 

 hunters took more care with skins, since they 

 were getting scarce, so that every 100 mar- 

 keted represented ,only 125 dead buffaloes. 

 Taking the lowest estimate for three years, 

 1872-'74, based on the hides actually shipped, 

 it is found that the total number of buft'aloes 

 killed by the hide-hunters was 3,158 730. To 

 this number must be added those buffaloes killed 

 by the Indians during the same period. This 

 number was about 1,215,000, making, when 

 added to the white hunter's record, a grand 

 total of 4,373,730 buffaloes killed in the South- 

 west in three years. The remnant of the 

 southern herd fled to that great barren waste 

 known as the Staked Plains, and thither a few 

 hide-hunters followed them, until as late as 



1880, when their numbers had decreased so 

 that hunting them for profit ceased entirely. 



In 1876 the northern herd greatly exceeded 

 the southern herd alike in numbers and in the 

 extent of its range. The traders of Miles City, 

 Montana, estimated that there were at that 

 time more than 500,000 buffaloes within 150 

 miles of that place, and that all told the north- 

 ern herd numbered something like a million 

 head. The Northern Pacific Railroad was 

 opened for traffic eastward from Glendive in 



1881. "lam told by the hide-buyers," says 

 Mr. Hornaday, "that in that year it carried 

 160,000 buffalo-hides out of the country, 

 and an equal number the year following. The 

 number shipped by steamers on the 'Missouri 

 river is at present unknown. In 1883 the 

 number of hides shipped fell to 25,000 and the 

 catch of the next season amounted to but one 

 car-load of hides, which were shipped from 

 Dickenson, D;ikota. In 1885 not a single hide 

 was in the market, and the buyers announced 

 that the end had come." 



" The northern herd, then, survived the ex- 

 tinction of the southern herd by about ten 



