THE EXTERMINATION OP THE AMERICAN BISON. 389 



rivers, threatened to overwhelm travelers on the plains, and in later 

 years derailed locomotives and cars, until railway engineers learned by 

 experience the wisdom of stopping their trains whenever there were 

 buffaloes crossing the track. On this feature of the buffalo's life history 

 a few detailed observations may be of value. 



Near the mouth of the White Eiver, in southwestern Dakota, Lewis 

 and Clark saw (in 1806) a herd of buffalo which caused them to make 

 the following record in their journal : 



u These last animals [buffaloes] are now so numerous that from an 

 eminence we discovered more than we had ever seen before at one 

 time; and if it be not impossible to calculate the moving multitude, 

 which darkened the whole plains, we are convinced that twenty thou- 

 sand would be no exaggerated number." 



When near the mouth of the Yellowstone, on their way down the 

 Missouri, a previous record had been made of a meeting with other 

 herds : 



" The buffalo now appear in vast numbers. A herd happened to be 

 on their way across the river [the Missouri]. Such was the multitude 

 of these animals that although the river, including an island over which 

 they passed, was a mile in length, the herd stretched as thick as they 

 could swim completely from one side to the other, and the party was 

 obliged to stop for an hour. They consoled themselves for the delay 

 by killing four of the herd, and then proceeded till at the distance of 

 45 miles they halted on an island, below which two other herds of buf- 

 falo, as numerous as the first, soon after crossed the river."* 



Perhaps the most vivid picture ever afforded of the former abun- 

 dance of buffalo is that given by Col. E. I. Dodge in his " Plains of the 

 Great West," p. 120, et seq. It is well worth reproducing entire : 



"In May, 1871, I drove in a light wagon from Old Fort Zara to Fort 

 Larned, on the Arkansas, 34 miles. At least 25 miles of this distance 

 was through one immense herd, composed of countless smaller herds of 

 buffalo then on their journey north. The road ran along the broad 

 level ' bottom,' or valley, of the river. * * * 



"The whole couutry appeared one great mass of buffalo, moving 

 slowly to the northward ; and it was only when actually among them that 

 it could be ascertained that the apparently solid mass was an agglomer- 

 ation of innumerable small herds, of from fifty to two hundred animals, 

 separated from the surrounding herds by greater or less space, but 

 still separated. The herds in the valley sullenly got out of my way, 

 and, turning, stared stupidly at me, sometimes at only a few yards' dis- 

 tance. When I had reached a point where the hills were no longer 

 more than a mile from the road, the buffalo on the hills, seeing an un- 

 usual object in their rear, turned, stared an instant, then started at 

 full speed directly towards me, stampeding and bringing with them the 



* Lewis and Clark's Exped., ii, p. 395. 



