BUFFALO ON THE PRAIRIES OF THE FAR WEST. 1 9 



we always find that as the white man advances 

 the great herds of game retire and gradually dis- 

 appear. 



A remarkable instance of this is the well-known case 

 of the bison, or buffalo, of the North American prairies, 

 which is now practically extinct, except as a domestic 

 animal although at a comparatively recent date, during 

 the lifetime of the present generation, they still roamed 

 in incredible numbers throughout the vast territories 

 of the Far West. The author himself has seen buffalo 

 covering these plains in immense herds, extending in 

 all directions to the most distant horizon large bands 

 of them appearing at times like great, brown, ploughed 

 fields, in motion. Yet now, the only representatives 

 of this splendid animal are some two or three small 

 herds captured as calves upon their native plains, 

 existing as a species of semi-domestic cattle, in a 

 state of confinement, from the hybrid descendants of 

 which, crossed with the ordinary breeds of domestic 

 cattle, great things are expected. 



The fatal influence which the presence of the White 

 man, and the use of firearms, was likely to have on 

 the quantity of game frequenting a country was quickly 

 recognized by those true children of the forest and the 

 wilderness, the Red Indians. 



The acute habits of observation habitual to this race 

 of hunters, schooled from their infancy in the stern 

 cradle of necessity, and dependent as they were, almost 

 exclusively, for their very existence, upon the fruits of 

 the chase, soon taught them to recognize in the " Pale 

 Faces " their most insidious and deadly foes. 



It is remarkable how early in the history of American 

 colonization the Indians, with prophetic accuracy, seem 



