180 THE AMERICAN BISONS. 



hides to market from these remote and Indian-infested regions is some 

 guaranty that the bufialo will not be extinct for a few years."* 



These facts arc sufficient to show that the present decrease of the buffalo 

 is extreme] v rapid, and indicate most clearly that the period of his extinction 

 will soon he reached, unless some strong arm is interposed in his behalf. As 

 vet no adequate game-laws for the protection of the buffalo, either by the 

 different States and Territories included within its range, or by the general 

 government, have been enacted. In a country so sparsely populated as is 

 that ranged over by the buffalo, it might lie difficult to enforce a proper law. 

 vet the parties who prosecute the business of buffalo-hunting professionally 

 are 80 well known that it would not he difficult to intercept them and bring 

 them to justice, if found unlawfully destroying the buffalo. It is evident 

 that restrictions should he made, not only in respeet to season, hut the young 

 and the hearing females should he protected at all seasons. The government 

 might even set apart certain districts within which the buffalo should he con- 

 stantly exempt from persecution.! 



Historical and Statistical Remarks respecting the Destruction and 

 Reckless Waste of the Buffalo. 



In addition to the statistics already given relating to the recent destruc- 

 tion of the bufialo in Kansas, it seems lilting in this connection to here 

 append such additional statistical data as can he conveniently gathered con- 

 cerning it> destruction at large, together with a few remarks in respect to 

 the causes and motives that have led to such a waste of life, and the agencies 

 that have effected it. 



Tin' excitement of the chase, as is well known, seems almost universally 

 to beget a spirit of wanton destructiveness of animal life. Wherever civil- 



* i "1 1 Richard I- Dodge — Sec Chicago Inltr-Ocean of August 5, 1875, 



t Respecting this matter the following suggestions were made in Professor Baird'a " Annual 

 of Science ami Industry" for 1874, p. 804: "A- these animals range almost entirely within the Ter- 

 ritories nf the United States, ii i- within the provim enact laws prohibiting their 

 •ii. Km the difficulties lie in the matter of enforcing them. Possiblj some provision for seising 

 and confiscating the green hides, along certain lines of railway or during certain seasons "f the rear, 

 as a pan nf tin- penalty in !«• attached in the violation of the law on the subject, might accomplish the 



result; but, at any rate, the mbjeel i i that demands the prompt attention of legislators, in view nf 



tin- relationship <•! thi i the irelfare of tin' Indians, ami the reaction which their destruction 



will produce upon Um Mattered white wttlements in the vicinitj of the range of l»'ili buffaloes ami 

 Indiana." 



