THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 467 



The great rise in the price of robes which followed the blotting out 

 of the great southern herd at once put buffalo-hunting on a much more 

 comfortable and respectable business basis in the North than it had 

 ever occupied in the South, where prices had all along been phenomenally 

 low. 



In Montana it was no uncommon thing for a hunter to invest from 

 $1,000 to $2,000 in his "outfit" of horses, wagons, weapons, ammuni- 

 tion, provisions, and sundries. 



One of the men who accompanied the Smithsonian Expedition for 

 Buffalo, Mr. James McNaney, of Miles City, Montana, was an ex-buffalo 

 hunter, who had spent three seasons on the northern range, killing 

 buffalo for their robes, and his standing as a hunter was of the best. 

 A brief description of his outfit and its work during its last season on 

 on the range (1882-'83) may fairly be taken as a typical illustration of 

 the life and work of the still-hunter at its best. The only thing against 

 it was the extermination of the buffalo. 



During the winters of 1880 and 1881 Mr. McNaney had served in Max- 

 well's outfit as a hunter, working by the month, but his success in kill- 

 ing was such that he decided to work the third year on his own account. 

 Although at that time only seventeen years of age, he took an elder 

 brother as a partner, and purchased an outfit in Miles City, of which 

 the following were the principal items : Two wagons, 2 four-horse teams, 

 2 saddle-horses, 2 wall- tents, 1 cook-stove with pipe, 1 40-90 Sharp's 

 rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-70 Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 1 45-120 

 Sharps rifle (breech-loading), 50 pounds gunpowder, 550 pounds lead, 

 4,500 primers, 600 brass shells, 4 sheets patch-paper, 60 Wilson skinning 

 knives, 3 butcher's steels, 1 portable grindstone, flour, bacon, baking- 

 powder, coffee, sugar, molasses, dried apples, canned vegetables, beans, 

 etc., in quantity. 



The entire cost of the outfit was about $1,400. Two men were hired 

 for the season at $50 per month, and the party started from Miles City 

 on November 10, which was considered a very late start. The usual 

 time of setting out for the range was about October 1. 



The outfit went by rail northeastward to Terry, and from thence 

 across country south and east about 100 miles, around the head of 

 O'Fallon Creek to the head of Beaver Creek, a tributary of the Little 

 Missouri. A good range was selected, without enroachment upon the 

 domains of the hunters already in the field, and the camp was made 

 near the bank of the creek, close to a supply of wood and water, and 

 screened from distant observation by a circle of hills and ridges. The 

 two rectangular wall-tents were set up end to end, with the cook-stove 

 in the middle, where the ends came together. In one tent the cooking 

 and eating was done, and the other contained the beds. 



It was planned that the various members of the party should cook 

 turn about, a week at a time, but one of them soon developed such a 



