390 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



numberless herds through which they passed, and pouring down upon 

 me all the herds, no longer separated, but one immense compact mass 

 of plunging animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as an avalanche. 



" The situation was by no means pleasant. Eeining up my horse 

 (which was fortunately a quiet old beast that had been in at the death 

 of many a buffalo, so that their wildest, maddest rush only caused him 

 to cock his ears in wonder at their unnecessary excitement), I waited 

 until the front of the mass was within 50 yards, when a few well-directed 

 shots from my rifle split the herd, and sent it pouring off in two streams 

 to my right and left. When all had passed me they stopped, appar- 

 ently perfectly satisfied, though thousands were yet within reach of 

 my rifle and many within less than 100 yards. Disdaining to fire again, 

 I sent my servant to cut out the tongues of the fallen. This occurred 

 so frequently within the next 10 miles, that when I arrived at Fort 

 Larned I had twenty-six tongues in my wagon, representing the great- 

 est number of buffalo that my conscience can reproach me for having 

 murdered on any single day. I was not hunting, wanted no meat, and 

 would not voluntarily have fired at these herds. I killed only in self- 

 preservation and fired almost every shot from the wagon." 



At my request Colonel Dodge has kindly furnished me a careful esti- 

 mate upon which to base a calculation of the number of buffaloes in 

 that great herd, and the result is very interesting. In a private letter, 

 dated September 21, 1887, he writes as follows : 



"The great herd on the Arkansas through which I passed could not 

 have averaged, at rest, over fifteen or twenty individuals to the acre, 

 but was, from my own observation, not less than 25 miles wide, and 

 from reports of hunters and others it was about five days in passing a 

 given point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top of Pawnee 

 Eock I could see from 6 to 10 miles in almost every direction. This 

 whole vast space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance like 

 one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to be 

 seen. I have seen such a sight a great number of times, but never on 

 so large a scale. 



" That was the last of the great herds." 

 • With these figures before us, it is not difficult to make a calculation 

 that will be somewhere near the truth of the number of buffaloes act- 

 ually seen in one day by Colonel Dodge on the Arkansas Eiver during 

 that memorable drive, and also of the number of head in the entire 

 herd- 



According to his recorded observation, the herd extended along the 

 river for a distance of 25 miles, which was in reality the width of the 

 vast procession that was moving north, and back from the road as far 

 as the eye could reach, on both sides. It is making a low estimate to 

 consider the extent of the visible ground at 1 mile on either side. This 

 gives a strip of country 2 miles wide by 25 long, or a total of 50 square 



