The Last of the Buffalo 



cies, now carefully guarded in the forests 

 of Grodno, even exceed in numbers the 

 buffalo in the Yellowstone Park ; while 

 the wild bison in the Caucasus may be 

 compared with the "wood" buffalo which 

 survive in the Peace River district. In 

 view of the former abundance of our buf- 

 falo, this parallel is curious and interesting. 



The early explorers were constantly as- 

 tonished by the multitudinous herds which 

 they met with, the regularity of their 

 movements, and the deep roads which 

 they made in travelling from place to 

 place. Many of the earlier references are 

 to territory east of the Mississippi, but 

 even within the last fifteen years buffalo 

 were to be seen on the Western plains in 

 numbers so great that an entirely sober 

 and truthful account seems like fable. 

 Describing the abundance of buffalo in a 

 certain region, an Indian once said to me, 

 in the expressive sign language of which 

 all old frontiersmen have some knowl- 

 edge, " The country was one robe." 



Much has been written about their 

 enormous abundance in the old days, but 

 I have never read anything that I thought 

 an exaggeration of their numbers as I have 

 seen them. Only one who has actually 

 spent months in travelling among them in 

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