500 BUFFALO LAND. 



f 

 THE DISAPPEARING BISON. 



lu connection with this general review of Buffalo Land, it 

 is interesting to note that while civilization, advancing from 

 the east, pushes our bison west, another tide of human beings, 

 creeping out from the mountains eastward, presses the buffalo 

 back before it. The brute multitude is thus between two 

 advancing lines, which will soon crush it. In confirmation of 

 this, I find the following in Haydeu's notes of the country 

 along the base of the Laramie Mountains : 



" These broad, grassy plains are not yet entirely destitute 

 of their former inhabitants ; flocks of antelope still feed on the 

 rich, nutritious grasses; but the buffalo, which once roamed 

 here by thousands, have disappeared forever. No trace of 

 them is now left but the old trails, which pass across the 

 country in every direction, and the bleached skulls which are 

 scattered here and there over the ground. These traces are 

 fast passing away. The skulls are decaying rapidly, and this 

 once peculiar feature of the landscape in the West will be lost. 

 Two years ago I collected a large quantity of these bleached 

 skulls and distributed them to several of our museums, in 

 order to insure their preservation. 



" There is also a singular ethnological fact connected with 

 these skulls. We shall observe that the greater part of them 

 have the forehead broken in for a space of three or four 

 inches in diameter. Whenever an Indian kills a buffalo, he 

 fractures the skull with his tomahawk and extracts the brains, 

 which he devours in a raw state. 



" Indians or old trappers traveling through the enemy's 

 country always fear to build a fire, lest the smoke attract the 



A 



