I70 Reminiscences of 



repetition of the manner so often followed in previous 

 encounters. Buffalo Bill, before being overtaken by 

 the officers, killed the whole eleven in twelve shots, 

 only one buffalo, the last one, requiring a second shot. 

 The officers, reining up at the fall of the bi-iffaloes which 

 had occurred in so brief a period, were doubly aston- 

 ished to learn the name of their famous associate. 



The dense stupidity of the buffalo largely aided 

 in his destruction. Skilful in protecting its young 

 and running mates from the attacks of wolves, and 

 even the grizzly bear and mountain lion, he never 

 seemed to acquire either a knowledge or a fear of the 

 death-dealing rifle, and many groups of a dozen or 

 more would often allow themselves to be shot down 

 one after another by a concealed hunter, without 

 moving from their tracks. During the death-dealing 

 periods after the building of the Kansas Pacific Rail- 

 road, there were hunters who boasted of having killed 

 from fifty to seventy-five buffaloes in a day. The 

 greater part of these killings was solely for the hides, 

 netting often not more than from one to three dollars 

 each. 



The exodus of buffalo north, through Kansas, in 

 1868, while the Kansas Pacific Railroad was build- 

 ing, was of enormous proportions. Col. Henry In- 

 man, who was with Generals Sheridan and Custer 

 and a large military force there, relates that they 

 were compelled to lay by with their whole force for 

 three days for the immense swaying mass of buffalo 

 to pass by, and were compelled to exercise the precau- 

 tion of corralling all their cattle and horses to prevent 

 their being stampeded and lost, and that large num- 

 bers of horses, mules, and cattle were lost, and never 



