THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 543 



into biin on various occasions. One was found sticking fast in one of 

 the lumbar vertebrae.* 



After a chase of several miles Mr. McNaney finally overhauled his 

 cow and killed her, which brought the number of buffaloes taken on the 

 fall hunt up to twenty-two. We spent the night at the Buffalo Buttes 

 and returned to camp the next clay. Neither on that day nor the one 

 following did the wagons arrive, and on the evening of the 8th we learned 

 from the cowboys of the N-bar camp on Sand Creek that our courier, 

 Private West, had not been seen or heard from since he left their samp 

 on November 24, and evidently had got lost and frozen to death in the 

 bad lands. 



The next day we started out to search for Private West, or news of 

 him, and spent the night with Messrs. Brodhurstand Andrews, at their 

 camp on Sand Creek. On the 10th, Mr. Mclsauey and I hunted through 

 the bad lands over the course our courier should have taken, while 

 Messrs. Busseli and Brodhurst looked through the country around the 

 head of the Little Dry. When McNaney and I reached the LU-bar 

 ranch that night we were greatly rejoiced at finding that West was 

 alive, although badly frost-bitten, and in Fort Keogh. 



It appears that instead of riding due east to the LU bar ranch, he lost 

 his way in the bad lands, where the buttes all look alike when covered 

 with snow, and rode southwest. It is at all times an easy matter for 

 even a cowboy to get lost in Montana if the country is new to him, and 

 when there is snow on the ground the difficulty of finding one's way is 

 increased tenfold. There is not only the danger of losing one's way, 

 but the still greater danger of getting ingulfed in a deep coulee full of 

 loose snow, which may easily cause both horse and rider to perish mis- 

 erably. Even the most experienced riders sometimes ride into coulees 

 which are level full of snow and hidden from sight. 



Private West's experience was a terrible one, and also a wonderful 

 case of self-preservation. It shows what a man with a cool head and 

 plenty of grit can go through and live. When he left us he wore two 

 undershirts, a heavy blanket shirt, a soldier's blouse and overcoat, two 

 pairs of drawers, a pair of soldier's woolen trousers, and a pair of over- 

 alls. On his feet he wore three pairs of socks, a pair of low shoes with 

 canvas leggins, and he started with his feet tied up in burlaps. His 

 head and hands were also well protected. He carried a 38-caliber re- 

 volver, but, by a great oversight, only six matches. When he left the 

 N-bar camp, instead of going due east toward the LU-bar ranch, he 

 swung around and went southwest, clear around the head of the Little 

 Dry, and finally struck the Porcupine south of our camp. The first 

 night out he made a fire with sage-brush, and kept it going all night. 

 The second night he also had a fire, but it took his last match to make 

 it. During the first three days he had no food, but on the fourth he 



* This specimen is now the commanding figure of the group of buffalo which has 

 recently been placed on exhibition in the Museum. 



