Fres., 1912. MamMats OF ILLINOIS AND WISCONSIN — Cory. 95 
“Qld men tell me that marks of the old Buffalo trail 9 miles south 
‘of Vincennes, where the Buffalo crossed the Wabash River from the 
vast prairies of Illinois en route to the blue grass and lick regions of 
Kentucky, are still visible.” 
For many years after Buffalo had disappeared from Illinois and 
Wisconsin they were found in considerable numbers in Iowa and 
Missouri. Dr. J. A. Allen states in 1867 he was informed that a few 
still remained in Iowa, and that up to that time one or more had been 
killed every year as far south as Green County.* 
Farther west, however, at this time great herds still roamed the 
Plains. Col. R. I. Dodge, while travelling from Old Fort Zara to Fort 
Larned on the Arkansas River in May, 1871, states that for 25 miles 
he passed through an immense herd of these animals. He says, ‘‘The 
whole country appeared one mass of buffalo, moving slowly to the north- 
ward.” { In a letter to Dr. Hornaday, dated September 21, 1887, he 
writes: “The great herd on the Arkansas through which I passed 
could not have averaged, at rest, over fifteen or twenty individuals 
to the acre, but was, from my own observation, not less than 25 miles 
wide, and from reports of hunters and others it was about five days in 
passing a given point, or not less than 50 miles deep. From the top 
of Pawnee Rock IJ could see from 6 to ro miles in almost every direction. 
This whole vast space was covered with buffalo, looking at a distance 
like one compact mass, the visual angle not permitting the ground to 
be seen.’ ft 
Hornaday estimates that in 1870, shortly after the completion of 
the Union Pacific Railroad, there were about four million Buffalo 
south of the Platte River and probably one million and a half north 
of it. He estimates that 3,698,730 animals of the Southern herd 
were killed during the vears 1872, 73, and 74, and of these, 3,158,730 
were killed by hide and meat hunters, less than half being utilized. 
The Atchison, Topeka, and Sante Fé Railroad carried in those years, 
459,453 hides; and other roads about twice as many (/. ¢., pp. 498-499). 
This was the beginning of the end and a few years later all that was left 
to mark the former presence of the countless herds of these splendid 
animals were their whitened skulls and bones scattered about the 
plains. 
*Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XIII., 1869 (1871), p. 186. 
t The Plains of the Great West, 1877, p. 120. 
t Extermination of the American Bison, Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1887 (1889), 
Pp. 390. 
