THE BUFFALO. 287 



tribes of the great plains has ever been impossible of attain- 

 ment so long as the warlike savage found an unfailing 

 supply of meat wherever in his wanderings he raised his 

 lodge-poles), in recollection of the bloody massacres of the 

 past, and for the sake of the helpless women and children 

 of his own race now scattered along the frontier in yet 

 possible peril of the horrors of savage war, will incline 

 toward an optimistic view of the question, and wisely 

 conclude that the skin-hunter, with his big Sharp, instead 

 of being the ogre of an untrained imagination, was not 

 only a necessary evil, not only the necessary forerunner 

 of civilization, but also that he was, after all, the true 

 missionary! The imperative commands of Christian civili- 

 zation were voiced in the roar of his big rifle; and with the 

 extermination of their hitherto unfailing meat-supply, 

 the red ferocity of the "Arabs of the New World" grew 

 pale, as did the scattered bones which outlined the funeral 

 march of the Buffalo ! 



The food-supply of a growing nation of people, already 

 numbering more than sixty millions, imperatively demanded 

 the use of the great plains for stocking the beef -markets of 

 the crowded cities; and the lapse of less than a score of 

 years has already demonstrated the wisdom of this demand, 

 in the multitude of domestic cattle now roaming over all 

 of the old Buffalo-range — a source of supply for the wants 

 of man more necessary and reliable than that of all the 

 wandering Buffaloes which ever lent the charm of their 

 presence to the wild life of the plains. 



In the year 1872 came the writer's personal experience 

 with the Buffalo. It was even then evident that' they were 

 fast passing away, and we were obliged to go one hundred 

 miles farther for meat that year than did the hunters of the 

 year before. The latter part of June was selected for the 

 start; for, although we would be obliged to dry or jerk our 

 meat on the hunting-grounds, all reports from the game- 

 region agreed that the Buffaloes were steadily moving west- 

 ward, and that should we wait until fall, the game would 



