COLONEL DODGE'S EXPERIENCES. 79 



buffalo" presently Colonel Dodge goes on to relate, that 

 some of these animals seeing him in their rear "started at 

 full speed directly towards him, stamping and bringing 

 with them the numberless herds through which they 

 passed, and pouring down upon him in one compact mass 

 of plunging animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as an 

 avalanche. " 



A few rifle shots however, split the herd into two 

 streams, and he escaped from a most serious and 

 awkward position : the same thing however " occurred 

 so frequently within the next ten miles " that on arrival 

 at Fort Larned he found he had 26 tongues in the 

 waggon representing the numbers of animals he had 

 killed in sheer self-defence. 



For Colonel Dodge says " I was not hunting, wanted 

 no meat, and would not voluntarily have fired. I 

 killed only in self-preservation, and fired almost every 

 shot from the waggon." * Fortunately for himself, 

 the Colonel's horse was a steady old buffalo runner, 

 which kept quiet, and regarded the buffalo with un- 

 concern. A restive horse is always a great danger on 

 such occasions. This great herd, we may remark, is 

 cited as a recent example of the buffalo migrations 

 already spoken of some pages back in this chapter. 



By this time (1871) the great buffalo range had be- 

 come permanently divided by the Pacific railways ; the 

 animals thus found themselves more or less confined to 

 certain restricted areas of country; and in 1872 on this 

 becoming generally known, that deplorable slaughter 

 of these splendid animals by greedy " skin hunters" 

 began, which has ended in their practical extinction. 



* The Hunting Grounds of the Great West, by Richard Irving Dodge, 

 Lieut.-Col. U.S.A., 1877, pp. 120 and 121. 



