American Buffale 
idea, however, may be obtained from the statement of Col. R. I. 
Dodge, who in 1871 passed through one of the immense herds while 
travelling in Arkansas. For twenty-five miles he passed through a 
continuous herd of buffalo. ‘‘The whole country appeared one great 
mass of buffalo, moving slowly to the northward; and it was only 
when actually among them that it could be ascertained that the 
apparently solid mass was an agglomeration of innumerable 
small herds of from fifty to two hundred animals, separated from the 
surrounding herds by greater or less space, but still separated. The 
herds in the valley sullenly got out of my way, and turning, stared 
stupidly at me, sometimes at only a few yards’ distance. When I had 
reached a point where the hills were no longer more than a mile from 
the road, the buffalo on the hills seeing an unusual object in their rear, 
turned, stared an instant, then started at full speed directly toward 
me, stampeding and bringing with them the numberless herds 
through which they passed, and pouring down on me all the herds, 
no longer separated, but one immense compact mass of plunging 
animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as an avalanche. Reining 
in my horse I waited until the front of the mass was within fifty 
yards, when a few well-directed shots split the herd, and sent it 
pouring off in two streams to the right and left. When all had 
passed they stopped, apparently perfectly satisfied, many within less 
than one hundred yards. . . . From the top of Pawnee Rock | could 
see from six to ten miles in almost every direction. This whole vast 
space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like a compact 
mass.” * 
From careful information furnished him Mr. Hornaday estimated 
this herd to comprise at lest four million buffalo. He adds: ‘‘Twenty 
years hence, when not even a bone or buffalo-chip remains above 
ground throughout the West to mark the presence of the buffalo, it 
may be difficult for people to believe that the animals ever existed in 
such numbers as to constitute not only a serious annoyance, but very 
often a dangerous menace to waggon travel across the plains, and also 
to stop railway trains and even throw them off the track.” ¢ 
Buffalo were indiscriminately polygamous, very much as are 
domestic cattle, and at the breeding season collected in much more 
compact herds. The combined bellowing of the bulls at such times 
* ‘*Plains of the Great West.’’ 
+The Extermination of the American Bison.’’ Report U.S. Nat. Mus. 
1886-7, an exhaustive treatise from which the substance of this account is taken. 
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