THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 493 



of a great number of buffalo-hunters, who plied their occupation vigor- 

 ously during the winter. On the north the herd ranged within 25 miles 

 miles of the Union Pacific, until the swarm of hunters coining clown 

 from the north drove them farther and farther south. On the west, a 

 few small bands ranged "as far as Pike's Peak and the South Park, but 

 the main body ranged east of the town of Pueblo, Colorado. In the 

 southwest, buffaloes were abundant as far as the Pecos and the Staked 

 Plains, while the southern limit of the herd was about on a line with 

 the southern boundary of New Mexico. Eegarding this herd, Colonel 

 Dodge writes as follows: " Their most j)rized feeding ground was the 

 section of country between the South Platte and Arkansas rivers, 

 watered by the Eepublican, Smoky, Walnut, Pawnee, and other paral- 

 lel or. tributary streams, and generally known as the Eepublican coun- 

 try. Hundreds of thousands went south from here each winter, but 

 hundreds of thousands remained. It was the chosen home of the 

 buffalo." 



Although the range of the northern herd covered about twice as much 

 territory as did the southern, the latter contained probably twice as 

 many buffaloes. The number of individuals in the southern herd in 

 the year 1871 must have been at least three millions, and most estimates 

 place the total much higher than that. 



During the years from 1S66 to 1871, inclusive, the Atchison, Topeka 

 and Santa Fe Eailway and what is now known as the Kansas Pacific, 

 or Kansas division of the Union Pacific Eailway, were constructed from 

 the Missouri Eiver westward across Kansas, and through the heart of 

 the southern buffalo range. The southern herd was literally cut to 

 pieces by railways, and every portion of its range rendered easily ac- 

 cessible. There had always been a market for buffalo robes at a fair 

 price, and as soon as the railways crossed the buffalo country the 

 slaughter began. The rush to the range was only surpassed by the 

 rush to the gold mines of California in earlier years. The railroad build- 

 ers, teamsters, fortune-seekers, "professional" hunters, trappers, guides, 

 and every one out of a job turned out to hunt buffalo for hides and meat. 

 The merchants who had already settled in all the little towns along the 

 three great railways saw an opportunity to make money out of the 

 buffalo product, and forthwith began to organize and supply hunting 

 parties with arms, ammunition, and provisions, and send them to the 

 range. An immense business of this kind was done by the merchants 

 of Dodge City (Fort Dodge), Wichita, and Leavenworth, and scores of 

 smaller towns did a corresponding amouut of business in the same line. 

 During the years 1871 to 1874 but little else was done in that country 

 except buffalo killing. Central depots were established in the best 

 buffalo country, from whence hunting parties operated in all directions. 

 Buildings were erected for the curing of meat, and corrals were built 

 in which to heap up the immense piles of buffalo skins that accumu- 

 lated. At Dodge City, as late as 1878, Professor Thompson saw a 



