522 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



other hunters, of whom there is always an able contingent around the 

 Park. 



In the United States the death of a buffalo is now such an event that 

 it is immediately chronicled by the Associated Press and telegraphed 

 all over the country. By reason of this, and from information already 

 in hand, we are able to arrive at a very fair understanding of the present 

 condition of the species in a wild state. 



In December, 1886, the Smithsonian expedition left about fifteen buf- 

 faloes alive in the bad lands of the Missouri-Yellowstone divide, at the 

 head of Big Porcupine Creek. In 1887 three of these were killed by 

 cowboys, and in 1888 two more, the last death recorded being that of 

 an old bull killed near Billings. There are probably eight or ten strag- 

 glers still remaining in that region, hiding in the wildest and most broken 

 tracts of the bad lauds, as far as possible from the cattle ranches, and 

 where even cowboys seldom go save on a round-up. From the fact that 

 no other buffaloes, at least so far as can be learned, have been killed in 

 Montana during the last two years, I am convinced that the bunch re- 

 ferred to are the last representatives of the species remaining in Mon- 

 tana. 



In the spring of 1886 Mr. B. C. Winston, while on a hunting trip about 

 75 miles west of Grand Rapids, Dakota, saw seven buffaloes. — five adult 

 animals and two calves; of which he killed one, a large bull, and caught 

 a calf alive. On September 11, 1888, a solitary bull was killed 3 miles 

 from the town of Oakes, in Dickey County. There are still three indi- 

 viduals in the unsettled country lying between that point and the Mis- 

 souri, which are undoubtedly the only wild representatives of the race 

 east of the Missouri River. 



On April 28, 1887, Dr. William Stephenson, of the United States Army, 

 wrote me as follows from Pilot Butte, about 30 miles north of Rock 

 Springs, Wyoming: 



." There are undoubtedly buffalo within 50 or 60 miles of here, two 

 having been killed out of a band of eighteen some ten days since by 

 cowboys, and another band of four seen near there. I hear from cattle- 

 men of their being seen every year north and northeast of here." 



This band was seen once in 1888. In February, 1889, Hon. Joseph 

 M. Carey, member of Congress from Wyoming, received a letter inform- 

 ing him that this band of buffaloes, consisting of twenty-six head, had 

 been seen grazing in the Red Desert of Wyoming, and that the Indians 

 were preparing to attack it. At Judge Carey's request the Indian 

 Bureau issued orders which it was hoped would prevent the slaughter. 

 So, until further developments, we have the pleasure of recording the 

 presence of twenty-six wild buffaloes in southern Wyoming. 



There are no buffaloes whatever in the vicinity of the Yellowstone 

 Park, either in Wyoming, Montana, or Idaho, save what wander out of 

 that reservation, and when any do, they are speedily killed. 



There is a rumor that there are ten or twelve mountain buffaloes still 



