THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 411 



fine bull, young but full grown, and both fired. At the report the 

 bisons all ran to the far end of the ledge and plunged over. 



"Terribly disappointed, the hunters ran to the spot, and found that 

 they had gone down a declivity, not actually a precipice, but so steep 

 that the hunters could not follow them. 



" At the foot lay a bison. A long, a fatiguing detour brought them to 

 the spot, and in the animal lying dead before him my friend recognized 

 his bull — his first and last mountain buffalo. None but a true sports- 

 man can appreciate his feelings. 



"The remainder of the herd was never seen after the great plunge, 

 down which it is doubtful if even a dog could have followed unharmed." 



In the issue of Forest and Stream of June 14, 1888, Dr. R. W. Shu- 

 feldt, in an article entitled "The American Buffalo," relates a very in- 

 teresting experience with buffaloes which were pronounced to be of the 

 "mountain" variety, and his observations on the animals are well worth 

 reproducing here. The animals (eight in number) were encountered on 

 the northern slope of the Big Horn Mountains, in the autumn of 1877. 

 "We came upon them during a fearful blizzard of heavy hail, during 

 which our animals could scarcely retain their feet. In fact, the packer's 

 mule absolutely lay down on the ground rather than risk being blown 

 down the mountain side, and my own horse, totally unable to face such 

 a violent blow and the pelting hail (the stones being as large as big 

 marbles) , positively stood stock-still, facing an old buffalo bull that was 

 not more than 25 feet in front of me. * * * Strange to say, this 

 fearful gust did not last more than ten minutes, when jt stopped as 

 suddenly as it had commenced, and I deliberately killed my old buffalo 

 at one shot, just where he stood, and, separating two other bulls from 

 the rest, charged them down a rugged ravine. They passed over this 

 and into another one, but with less precipitous sides and no trees in the 

 way, and wheu I was on top of the intervening ridge I noticed that 

 the largest bull had halted in the bottom. Checking my horse, an ex- 

 cellent buffalo hunter, I fired down at him without dismounting. The 

 ball merely barked his shoulder, and to my infinite surprise he turned 

 and charged me up the hill. * * * Stepping to one side of my 

 horse, with the charging and infuriated bull not 10 feet to my front, I 

 fired upon him, and the heavy ball took him square in the chest, bring- 

 ing him to his knees, with a gush of scarlet blood from his mouth and 

 nostrils. * * * 



"Upon examining the specimen, I found it to be an old bull, appar- 

 ently smaller and very much blacker than the ones I had seen killed on 

 the plains only a day or so before. Then I examined the first one I had 

 shot, as well as others which were killed by the packer from the same 

 bunch, and I came to the conclusion that they were typical representa- 

 tives of the variety known as the * mouutain buffalo/ a form much more 

 active in movement, of slighter limbs, blacker, and far more dangerous 

 to attack. My opinion in the premises remain* unaltered to-day. In 



