130 BUFFALO HUNTERS FROZEN TO DEATH. 



upon the open prairie, to the full force and fury of 

 a violent plains Norther, Colonel Dodge tells us, after 

 30 years experience of life upon the plains, would in 

 his opinion 



" be certain death to any indigenous animal. Buffalo and 

 antelope fly before it, and seek protection in the deepest 

 and most wooded canons. Near Julesberg I once saw 

 the snow dotted with the bodies of a great number of 

 snow birds frozen to death in a storm a few days before. 

 Men suffer more than other animals." "The icy wind cuts 

 like a knife, no clothing seems to keep it from the person, 

 and penetrating to every part, it drags out every particle of 

 vital heat, leaving but a stiffened corpse of him who is so 

 unfortunate as to be exposed to it." * 



Thus in the winter of 1865 and '66, Colonel Dodge 

 informs us, a considerable command of U.S.A. troops was 

 caught on the Cimarron River in one of these storms, 

 " and barely escaped total destruction. An officer who 

 was with it described their sufferings as most fearful. Many 

 men were more or less frosted, and about 600 animals 

 frozen or starved to death" f "still more recently at least 

 100 buffalo hunters perished from cold within 100 miles of the 

 Arkansas River in two years" "and during the winter of 

 1872 3 over 200 men lost hands or feet or parts of them" 

 and " at least 70 capital amputations were performed by the 

 post surgeon at Port Dodge " on persons who had limbs 

 frozen, "whilst a much greater number were sent East for 

 treatment." 



It is, however, fortunate for the habitability of these 

 plains, that storms of such excessive severity are 

 comparatively rare, and when they do occur, are seldom 

 of long duration; and of course with the advance of 



* The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Col. Rich. I. Dodge, 

 U.S.A., 1877, p. 39. f Ibid. p. 41. Ibid. p. 39. 



