CHAPTER III 



THE LORDLY BUFFALO 



GONE forever are the mighty herds of the 

 lordly buffalo. A few solitary individuals 

 and small bands are still to be found scattered 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 Mexi- 

 can frontier, or else in the wildest and most inac- 

 cessible fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains; but 

 the great herds, that for the first three quarters of 

 this century formed the distinguishing and charac- 

 teristic 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 the buffalo, for these animals 

 had never penetrated in any number to the Appala- 

 chian chain of mountains. Indeed, it was after the 

 beginning of the century before the inroads of the 

 whites upon them grew at all serious. Then, though 

 constantly driven westward, the diminution in their 

 territory, if sure, was at least slow, although grow- 

 ing progressively more rapid. Less than a score of 



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