BUFFALO, OR BISON, EXTERMINATION OF THE. 



75 



years, and its extermination is to-day so nearly 

 complete as to be regarded as an accomplished 

 fact. To-day what remains of the millions of 

 twenty years ago? Two or three little bands 

 of trembling, terror-stricken fugitives, vainly 

 endeavoring to find shelter from blood-thirsty 

 man in the wildest and most desolate country, 

 pursued hither and thither, and shot at by 

 every cow-boy whose glance falls upon them, 

 and to be pursued with increasing vigor and 

 recklessness until the last one falls. As the 

 result of a carel'ul investigation, I am convinced 

 that there are now not more than 200 wild 

 buffaloes alive in the United States territory, 

 outside of Yellowstone Park. Of this num- 

 ber there are, as has been said, about 100 or 

 fewer in the Panhandle of Texas, about 30 

 more in the country where our collecting was 

 done (near Little Dry, Montana), and perhaps 

 75 more in the neighborhood of Bear's Paw 

 mountain, Montana. Strange as it may seem, 

 there are still half a dozen head in Southwest- 

 ern Dakota, and I am told there are a few 

 straggling bison in Clark's Fork region near 

 the National Park. In the latter reservation 

 there are between 100 and 125 head, and they 

 are increasing at the rate of ten per cent, an- 

 nually." 



This statement is no doubt more recent than 

 the report of the Park superintendent cited 

 elsewhere, and it is to be hoped, though not as 

 yet confidently affirmed, that it is the more 

 correct of the two. 



In 1886 the Smithsonian Institution awoke 

 to the fact that the bison was nearly extinct, 

 and the National Museum still without speci- 

 mens. Mr. T. W. Hornaday, one of the most 

 accomplished naturalists and taxidermists of 

 the staff, was directed to organize an expedi- 

 tion which visited the Bad Lands of Montana, 

 near Little Dry, 75 miles north of Miles City, 

 Montana. 



While the expedition was on its way toward 

 the hunting-grounds, its members saw thou- 

 sands of bleaching skeletons scattered over the 

 prairie in every direction. After passing the 

 Red Buttes they were hardly ever out of sight 

 of these white memorials of man's short-sighted 

 rapacity, and at times twenty or more were in 

 sight at once. In one place seventeen skeletons 

 were counted grouped together in a space of 

 not more than two acres. The skeletons were 

 often in a remarkable state of preservation, 

 and eight absolutely perfect ones were secured, 

 bleached to a snowy whiteness. The hunters 

 remained in the Bad Lands till the blizzards of 

 December warned them to retreat, and reached 

 Washington early in 1887 with the fruits of 

 what must be regarded as the last buffalo-hunt. 

 They killed altogether twenty-five animals, but 

 the hide of one of the finest was stolen -by 

 hostile Indians. A fine group has been set up 

 in tlif National Museum at Washington under 

 Mr. Hornaday's superintendence, representing 

 six bison, from a calf of three months old to a 

 magnificent bull neatly six feet high. When 



it is remembered that these animals would no 

 doubt have been wantonly shot, and perhaps 

 left for the wolves to devour, their sacrifice to 

 the interests of science is excusable. On its 

 way back the expedition secured fifty-one per- 

 fect skulls from among the thousands upon the 

 prairie, for now that the living buffalo is gone, 

 even his bones have acquired a commercial 

 value, and the more accessible portions of the 

 "buffalo range" are stripped of everything 

 that is worth carrying away. 



It has been said that an effort is being made 

 to preserve and protect the bison in the Yellow- 

 stone National Park. A troop of United States 

 cavalry is permanently quartered there charged 

 with protecting it; but fifty or sixty men, even 

 with the best intentions, must needs find their 

 hands full to guard 3,500 square miles of forest 

 and m'ountain yearly invaded by tourists, and 

 perpetually subject to the inroads of scarcely 

 less predatory Indians and white marauders. 



In his report for 1887, Mr. P. H. Conger, the 

 Park superintendent, says: " A small number of 

 buffaloes still remain in the Park; but after as 

 careful and thorough an investigation as is prac- 

 ticable, I am unable to state their numbers with 

 any approach to accuracy. My impression is 

 that they have heretofore been somewhat over- 

 estimated, and that at the present time they 

 will not exceed one hundred in number. They 

 are divided into three separate herds. One of 

 these ranges between Hellroaricg and Slough 

 creeks ; in summer well up on these streams 

 in the mountains outside the Park limits, and 

 in the winter, lower down on small tributaries 

 of the Yellowstone, within the Park. If the 

 reports made several years ago can be relied 

 on, this herd has rapidly diminished, and it is 

 doubtful if it now exceeds some twenty or 

 thirty in number. Whether or not this de- 

 crease has been due to illegal killing by hunt- 

 ers, or to other causes, I am unable to say, 

 though I do not believe that many have been 

 killed within the past two years. Another 

 herd ranges on Specimen mountain, and the 

 waters of Pelican creek. The herd was seen 

 by reliable parties several times last winter, 

 and was variously estimated at from forty to 

 eighty. A traveler on the Cook City road 

 claimed to have counted fifty -four near the 

 base of Specimen ridge. A scouting party 

 which I sent out during the month of May 

 found but twenty-seven head of this herd, with 

 four young calves. It is possible that the herd 

 at this time was broken up, and that but one 

 portion of it was found. The third herd ranges 

 along the Continental divide, and is much scat- 

 tered. A band of nine or ten from this herd 

 was seen several times this spring in the vicin- 

 ity of the Upper Geyser Basin. It will take 

 close observation for several years to deter- 

 mine with any certainty the number of these 

 animals, or whether or not they are diminish- 

 ing in numbers. It is practically certain that 

 none have been killed within the Park limits 

 within the last two years, and yet there is an 



