BUFFALO. 121 



old beast that had been in at the death of many a buffalo, 

 so that their wildest, maddest rush only caused him to 

 cock his ears in wonder at their unnecessary excitement), 

 I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty yards, 

 when a few well-directed shots from my rifle split the 

 herd, and sent it pouring off in two streams, to my right 

 and left. When all had passed me they stopped, 

 apparently perfectly satisfied, though thousands were yet 

 within reach of my rifle, and many within less than one 

 hundred yards. Disdaining to fire again I sent my ser- 

 vant to cut out the tongues of the fallen.. This occurred 

 so frequently within the next ten miles, that when I 

 arrived at Fort Larned I had twenty- six tongues in my 

 waggon, representing the greatest number of buffalo that 

 my conscience can reproach me for having murdered on 

 any single day. I was not hunting, wanted no meat, and 

 would not voluntarily have fired at these herds. I killed 

 only in self-preservation, and fired almost every shot from 

 the waggon. 



The winter of 1871-2 was unusually severe on the 

 Arkansas. The ponds and smaller streams to the north 

 were all frozen solid, and the buffalo were forced to the 

 river for water. Their retreat was to the northward. 

 The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Eailroad was then in 

 process of construction, and nowhere could the pecu- 

 liarity of the buffalo of which I am speaking be better 

 studied than from its trains. If a herd was on the north 

 side of the track, it would stand stupidly gazing, and with- 

 out a symptom of alarm, although the locomotive passed 

 within a hundred yards. If on the south side of the 

 track, even though at a distance of one or two miles from 

 it, the passage of a train set the whole herd in the wildest 

 commotion. At full speed, and utterly regardless of the 

 consequences, it would make for the track on its line of 

 retreat. If the train happened not to be in its path 

 it crossed the track and stopped satisfied. If the train 

 was in its way, each individual buffalo went at it with the 



