GAME IN THE FAR WEST. 283 



GAME IN THE FAR WEST. 



While Buffalo have almost wholly disappeared from the regions 

 traversed by the great public thoroughfares, and other kinds of 

 game have perceptibly diminished in some quarters, there is no im- 

 mediate danger of their becoming extinct, as has been argued by 

 some writers. There will be some hunting for several more years 

 to come in many localities in the yet unoccupied regions of West* 

 ern Colorado, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Montana, and 

 Dakota. You can leave New York, and in about a week's time 

 reach the hunting centers where one who has a passion for the rod 

 or gun can be fully gratified. Within ten years' time, buffalo were 

 seen in droves from the cars of the passing railway trains in Kan- 

 sas, Nebraska, and Colorado. Now they have disappeared from 

 Middle and Southern Kansas, and the present range of what is 

 known as the " southern herd " of buffalo, lies in the region of 

 country south of the Arkansas River and extends to the Texas 

 line. Here large numbers of buffalo have been killed during the 

 past six or eight years. Between the scant herbage of the plains, 

 and the merciless destruction of Remington, Winchester, and 

 Sharpe's rifles, the animals have mostly disappeared from this 

 region. The range is reached by going out on the Atchison, To- 

 peka, and Santa Fe road as far as Lakin, and then striking due 

 south. There are a few buffalo left in North Park, Colorado, and 

 the country west of it. They are, however, very wary and di'H- 

 cult to find. A party of us rode over 130 miles in a fruitless efl )rt 

 to discover this drove. There are likewise a few buffalo in North- 

 ern Nebraska in the Niobrara region. The great northern herd, 

 however,has pushed far northward beyond the Yellowstone country. 

 During November, 1881, we found large numbers of Buffalo be- 

 tween the Little Missouri River and the Yellowstone. The drove 

 was estimated at fully eighty thousand. At Glendive, Montana, 

 we met hunters killing them for their hides. A few years 

 ago, passengers on the Kansas Pacific Road constantly sa-tf Inte- 

 lope from the windows. Now, however, they are rarely S&.A ex- 

 cept in the western portion of Kansas and along the Colorado boun- 



