THE MOUNTAIN BUFFALO. 589 



buffaloes. Add to this 1,215,000 killed by Indians, and we have the 

 number of nearly four and a half millions. " Nor is this all," he adds. 

 " No account has been taken of the immense numbers killed by hunters 

 who took the skins away in wagons, nor of the numbers sent to St. Louis, 

 .Memphis, and elsewhere by other railroads than the Santa Fe and To- 

 peka line. No wonder that men fear that the Buffalo will soon cease to 

 exist. Congress has talked of interfering, but only talked. But in fact, 

 the extinction of the Buffalo is inevitable. Civilization cannot spare room 

 for its ranges. When industry and skill have turned the rich prairies 

 into smiling fields and rich pastures, the Bison will be confined to small 

 reservations, or seen only as curiosities in the Zoological Gardens." The 

 government of the United States has shown a laudable desire to preserve 

 the curiosities of our country. It has rescued from destruction the 

 giant trees of California, and saved from utter annihilation the Sea Lions 

 of Santa Barbara. We need not fear that a nation which has set apart 

 the whole Yellowstone Valley as a National Park, will ever refuse to 

 i^ive to the remnants of our buffaloes — when the day comes that their 

 wild freedom is incompatible with the progress of civilization — a district 

 compared with which the Russian forest which shelters its European 

 congener will appear narrow and confined. 



THE MOUNTAIN BUFFALO. 



In the so-called Parks of the Rocky Mountains, there is found an 

 animal which old frontiersmen call by the name of Bison. It is to the 

 Buffalo of the plains what a mountain pony is to a well-built horse. It 

 is admirably adapted for its dwelling-place. Its body is lighter, and its 

 legs shorter, thicker, and stronger than those of the Buffalo. It is rare 

 and very shy, seeking out the most retired glens and passes, and scram- 

 bling with wonderful agility over the craggy sides of almost inaccessible 

 mountains. 



General Dodge writes : " The deep gorges which intersect the moun- 

 tains that join the Parks are the favorite haunt of the Mountain Buffalo. 

 Early in the morning he enjovs a bountiful breakfast of the rich nutri- 

 tious grasses, quenches his thirst with the finest water, and, retiring just 

 within the line of jungle whence, himself unseen, he can scan the open, 

 he reposes in comfort till appetite calls him to dinner late in the evening. 

 He does not, like the buffalo, stare stupidly at the intruder. At the first 



