6 Life of a Fossil Hunter 



to an older brother's ranch in Ellsworth County, 

 Kansas, two and a half miles south of Fort Harker, 

 now known as Kanopolis. This post was at that 

 time the terminus of the Kansas Division of the 

 Union Pacific, and almost daily train-load after 

 train-load of prairie schooners, drawn by oxen, 

 burros, or mules, pulled out from it over the old 

 Butterfield and Santa Fe trails, the one leading up 

 the Smoky Hill, the other through the valley of the 

 Arkansas to Denver and the Southwest. 



In spring great herds of buffalo followed the ten- 

 der grass northward, returning to the South in the 

 fall; and one bright day my brother and I started 

 out on our first buffalo hunt. Driving a team of 

 Indian ponies hitched to a light spring wagon, we 

 soon left the few settlements behind, and reached 

 the level prairie to the southwest, near old Fort 

 Zaro, a deserted one-company post on the Santa Fe 

 Trail. At this time it had been appropriated by a 

 cattleman who had a small herd grazing in the 

 vicinity. 



When within a few miles of this post, we saw a 

 large herd of buffalo lying down a mile away. It 

 was no easy matter to crawl toward them over the 

 plain, pushing myself along without raising my body 

 above the short grass, but after strenuous efforts I 

 got within shooting distance without disturbing 

 them, and was resting for a shot, when the rancher 



