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AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



few beaver are left; they were very abundant in 1880, 

 but were speedily trapped out when the Indians vanished 

 and the Northern Pacific Railroad was built. While 

 this railroad was building, the beaver frequently caused 

 much trouble by industriously damming the culverts. 



With us the first animal to disappear was the buffalo. 

 In the old days, say from 1870 to 1880, the buffalo were 

 probably the most abundant of all animals along the Lit- 

 tle Missouri in the region that I know, ranging, say, from 

 Pretty Buttes to the Kildeer Mountains. They were mi- 

 gratory, and at times almost all of them might leave ; but, 

 on the whole, they were the most abundant of the game 

 animals. In 1881 they were still almost as numerous as 

 ever. In 1883 all were killed but a few stragglers, and 

 the last of these stragglers that I heard of as seen in our 

 immediate neighborhood was in 1885. The second game 

 animal in point of abundance was the blacktail. It did not 

 go out on the prairies, but in the broken country adjoining 

 the river it was far more plentiful than any other kind of 

 game. Blacktail were not much slaughtered until the 

 buffalo began to give out, say in 1882; but by 1896 they 

 were not a twentieth probably not a fiftieth as plenti- 

 ful as they had been in 1882. A few are still found in 

 out-of-the-way places, where the ground is very rough. 

 Elk were plentiful in 1880, though never anything like 

 as abundant as the buffalo and the blacktail. Only strag- 

 gling parties or individuals have been seen since 1883. 

 The last I shot near my ranch was in 1886; but two or 

 three have been shot since, and a cow and calf were seen, 

 chased and almost roped by the riders on the round-up 



