io8 HUNTING TRIPS 



range was broken in two, and the buffalo 

 herds in the middle slaughtered or thrust 

 aside; and thus there resulted two ranges, 

 the northern and the southern. The latter 

 was the larger, but being more open to the 

 hunters, was the sooner to be depopulated; 

 and the last of the great southern herds was 

 destroyed in 1878, though scattered bands 

 escaped and wandered into the desolate 

 wastes to the southwest. Meanwhile equal- 

 ly savage war was waged on the northern 

 herds, and five years later the last of these 

 was also destroyed or broken up. The bulk 

 of this slaughter was done in the dozen years 

 from 1872 to 1883; never before in all his- 

 tory were so many large wild animals of one 

 species slain in so short a space of time. 



The extermination of the buffalo has been 

 a veritable tragedy of the animal world. 

 Other races of animals have been destroyed 

 within historic times, but these have been 

 species of small size, local distribution, and 

 limited numbers, usually found in some par- 

 ticular island or group of islands ; while the 



