THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 513 



neapolis, Minnesota, Mr. Davis was for many years a buyer of furs, 

 robes, and hhles on a large scale throughout our Northwestern Terri- 

 tories, and was actively engaged in baying up buffalo robes as long as 

 there were any to buy. In reply to a letter asking for statistics, he wrote 

 ine as follows, on September 27, 1887 : 



"It is impossible to give the exact number of robes and hides shipped 

 out of Dakota and Montana from 1876 to 1883, or the exact number of 

 buffalo in the northern herd ; but I will give you as correct an account 

 as any one can. In 1876 it was estimated that there were half a million 

 buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City. In 1881 the North- 

 ern Pacific Railroad was built as far west as Glendive and Miles City. 

 At that time the whole country was a howling wilderness, and Indians 

 and wild buffalo were too numerous to mention. The first shipment of 

 buffalo robes, killed by white men, was made that year, and the sta- 

 tions on the Northern Pacific Railroad between Miles City and Mandan 

 sent out about fifty thousand hides and robes. In 1882 the number of 

 hides and robes bought and shipped was about two hundred thousand, 

 and in 1883 forty thousand. In 1884 I shipped from Dickinson, Da- 

 kota Territory, the only car load of robes that went East that year, and 

 it was the last shipment ever made." 



For a long time the majority of the ex-hunters cherished the fond de- 

 lusion that the great herd had onby "gone north" into the British Pos- 

 sessions, and would eventually return in great force. Scores of rumors 

 of the findiug of herds floated about, all of which were eagerly believed 

 at first. But after a year or two had gone by without the appearance 

 of a single buffalo, and likewise without any reliable information of the 

 existence of a herd of any size, even in British territory, the butchers 

 of the buffalo either hung up their old Sharps rifles, or sold them for 

 nothing to the gun-dealers, and sought other means of livelihood. 

 Some took to gathering up buffalo bones and selling them by the ton, 

 and others became cowboys. 



V. Congressional Legislation for the Protection of the 



Bison. 



The slaughter of the buffalo down to the very point of extermination 

 has been so very generally condemned, and the general Government 

 has been so unsparingly blamed for allowing such a massacre to take 

 place on the public domain, it is important that the public should know 

 all the facts in the case. To the credit of Congress it must be said that 

 several very determined efforts were made betwen the years 1871 and 

 1876 looking toward the protection of the buffalo. The failure of all 

 those well-meant efforts was due to our republican form of Government. 

 Had this Goverment been a monarchy the buffalo would have been pro- 

 tected 5 but unfortunately in this case (perhaps the only one on record 

 wherein a king could have accomplished more than the representatives 

 of the people) the necessary act of Congress was so hedged in and beset 

 H, Mis. .00, pt.2-— 33 



