staff, which temporarily included also General Custer and Scout 
Bill Cody, “Buffalo Bill,’ and eight other officers, “How many 
buffaloes have you seen to-day?” We had been marching since 
daylight and it was then four o'clock in the afternoon, during most 
of the day passing immense herds of these mighty animals, General 
Sheridan said to Forsyth, one of his aides—“Take a pencil and note- 
book, put down your estimate first, and then put down the number 
of each one of the eleven present.” The aggregate was 243,000! 
One of the most interesting incidents connected with the buf- 
faloes, their way of trying to protect the calves from the attack 
of wolves, came under my eye near the Antelope Hills in the Indian 
Territory in the early spring of 1868. I saw at a distance from the 
top of a divide a very large herd feeding quietly, of a sudden there 
was great agitation, then ‘I saw many wolves on three sides of the 
herd moving quickly towards a lot of cows with young calves. At 
once the cows started by pushing the calves, aided by the bulls, toward 
the center of the herds. The cows then “formed a circle with the 
calves inside and the young bulls forming another circle outside of 
the cows, and the old and large bulls still making another circle 
outside on their flanks, thus protecting the calves from the wolves. 
In the movement of troops on the Kansas Pacific R. R. in 1868, 
between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Hays, I have often known of, 
and often been in the train, when the buffalos were so numerous 
that the train was compelled to stop for over half an hour at 
time to let them cross the tracks. 
I have seen hundreds caught in quicksands on the Platte River, 
and also along the banks and shoals of the Red, Arkansas and 
Canadian Rivers. 
Alas, to-day there is not a single buffalo between Texas and 
Canada, save in the Yellowstone Park, in Oklahoma, Montana and 
North Dakota, where reservations have been established, thanks to our 
Bison Society. 
The real causes of the almost extermination of the buffaloes, out- 
side the killing by the Indians, was not only by the demands of com 
merce in skins, heads and horns, ete., but by so-called “Sportsmen’ 
(God forgive me for applying such a term to these wanton butchers), 
who slaughtered these animals for their tongues alone, and also would 
shoot them down and leave the great beast to die, a food for 
wolves and other animals. Thousands upon thousands were killed 
to supply meat for the railroad workingmen employed in building 
the Kansas Pacific, Union and Northern Pacific, Atchison, Topeka, 
and Santa Fe Railroads. 
The Government of the United States, with its shortsighted- 
ness in the past in failing to protect the oreat game of our country, 
is really responsible for the slaughter of the buffaloes and other 
large game. A few ignorant and interested members of Congress 
prevented the passing of bills to protect them. 
Even attempts to get control of the Yellowstone Park in 1882 
and 1883, were only frustrated by the strong protests made by me, 
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