THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 535 



close. Leaving half of our freight stored at the H V ranch, we loaded the 

 remainder upon our own wagon, and started up Sand Creek. 



At this point the hunt began. As the wagon and extra horses pro- 

 ceeded up the Sand Creek trail in the care of W. Harvey Brown, the 

 three cowboys and I paired off, and while two hunted through the coun- 

 try along the south side of the creek, the others took the north. The 

 whole of the country bordering Sand Creek, quite up to its source, consists 

 of rugged hills and ridges, which sometimes rise to considerable height, 

 cut between by great yawning ravines and hollows, such as persecuted 

 game loves to seek shelter in. Inasmuch as the buffalo we were in search 

 of had been seen hiding in those ravines, it became necessary to search 

 through them with systematic thoroughness 5 a proceeding which was 

 very wearing upon our horses. Along the south side of Sand Creek, 

 near its source, the divide between it and Little Dry Creek culminates 

 in a chain of high, flat-topped buttes, whose summits bear a scanty 

 growth of stunted pines, which serve to make them conspicuous land- 

 marks. On some maps these insignificant little buttes are shown as 

 mountains, under the name of "Piny Buttes." 



It was our intention to go to the head of Sand Creek, and beyond, in 

 case buffaloes were not found earlier. Immediately westward of its 

 source there is a lofty level plateau, about 3 miles square, which, by com- 

 mon consent, we called the High Divide. It is the highest ground any- 

 where between the Big Dry and the Yellowstone, and is the starting 

 point of streams that run northward into the Missouri and Big Dry, 

 eastward into Sand Creek and the Little Dry, southward into Porcu- 

 pine Creek and the Yellowstone, and westward into the Musselshell. 

 On three sides — north, east, and south — it is surrounded by wild and 

 rugged butte country, and its sides are scored by intricate systems of 

 great yawning ravines and hollows, steep-sided and very deep, and 

 bad lands of the worst description. 



By the 12th of October the hunt had progressed up Sand Creek to its 

 source, and westward across the High Divide to Calf Creek, where we 

 found a hole of wretchedly bad water and went into permanent camp. 

 "We considered that the spot we selected would serve us as a key to the 

 promising country that lay on three sides of it, and our surmise that 

 the buffalo were in the habit of hiding in the heads of those great ravines 

 around the High Divide soon proved to be correct. Our camp at the 

 head of Calf Creek was about 20 miles east of the Musselshell River, 40 

 miles south of the Missouri, and about 135 miles from Miles City, as the 

 trail ran. Four miles north of us, also on Calf Creek, was the line camp 

 of the STV ranch, owned by Messrs. J. H. Conrad & Co., and 18 miles 

 east, near the head of Sand Creek, was the line camp of the N-bar ranch, 

 owned by Mr. Newman. At each of these camps there were generally 

 from two to four cowboys. From all these gentlemen we received the 

 utmost courtesy and hospitality on all occasions, and all the informa- 

 tion in regard to buffalo which it was in their power to give. On many 



