IN Till: FAR WEST. 175 



three out of a herd in one run, and wounded several more ; 

 and it was no uncommon thing for him to kill thirty or forty 

 in a run, and select his animals. I have hunted with him and 

 other persons in the West, but I never knew one to even 

 approach him in killing 1 bufi'aloes or any other game when 

 they were running at full speed. 



The two methods of hunting the buffalo employed in the 

 West is to stalk it and run it down on horseback. Which 

 is the most sportsmanlike method, sportsmen will readily 

 discern without any comments. Hungry men and hide- 

 hunters generally resort to the former, the true lovers of the 

 chase to the latter. By the former system all one has to do 

 is to crawl to the leeward of a herd, taking advantage of every 

 rise in the ground, and fire away when a good opportunity is 

 presented; for buffaloes are such stupid creatures that the 

 greater part of a herd may be destroyed before the remainder 

 get out of range, provided they do not see or wind the hunter. 

 This is how the hide-hunters make their enormous hauls, and 

 rid a region of the animals in a short time. In a letter which 

 I published in a prominent New York journal in September, 

 1874, 1 made the following statement about the destruction of 

 the buffalo ; but from what I have learned since, by experience, 

 I should be apt to more than sextuple my estimate, and still 

 be within the bounds. 



"It is estimated that the 'hide-hunters' of Kansas, Texas, 

 Colorado, and Southern Nebraska kill 5U,OUO each year for the 

 skins alone ; that the Indians kill three times that number, 

 and that perhaps 10,000 more are killed by sportsmen and 

 those pioneers who depend on buffalo for their winter meat ; 

 thus we have the enormous figure of 210,000 as the annual 

 slaughter. But this even will not represent the grand total, 

 for many calves are captured to be sold to menageries, museums, 

 and to private gentlemen who desire such pets. I cannot 

 approach a summary of the latter, but I think that from five 

 to ten thousand would be an approximate estimate, though a 

 low one. I have known instances where a hundred of these 

 creatures were caught in a day by being run down, and not 

 more than one-tenth were alive the next, for, though apparently 



