The Bison 143 



be called seasonal. The buffalo's attachment to 

 locality, and its natural inertia, is well exempli- 

 fied by an experience of Major G. W. H. Stouch, 

 U.S.A., retired, a veteran soldier of more than 

 thirty-five years' experience on the plains, of which 

 he told me many years ago. I give it as nearly 

 as possible in his own words : 



" In the fall of 1866 I was directed to proceed 

 with Company C, Third Infantry, to reestablish 

 old Fort Fletcher on the north fork of Big Creek, 

 sixteen miles below the present Fort Hays, 

 Kansas. When on October i6th we marched 

 down to the site chosen, and went into camp, I 

 noticed half a mile above us on the creek bottom 

 a considerable herd of buffalo feeding ; there 

 were perhaps eight or nine hundred of them. 

 As soon as I saw them, it occurred to me that I 

 would leave them undisturbed, and that so long 

 as they remained there they might furnish us 

 a supply of beef at very little cost of time or 

 trouble. I therefore ordered the men not to 

 hunt up the creek, or disturb these buffalo in 

 any way, instructing them to do all their hunt- 

 ing down the stream. 



" In order to put my idea in practice at once, 

 I detailed one of the soldiers as hunter and 



