THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 421 



summer of 1867, over two thousand buffaloes, out of a herd of about four 

 thousand, lost their lives in the quicksands of the Platte River, near 

 Plum Creek, while attempting to cross. One winter, a herd of nearly 

 a hundred buffaloes attempted to cross a lake called Lac-qui-parle, in 

 Minnesota, upon the ice, which gave way, and drowned the entire herd. 

 During the days of the buffalo it was a common thing for voyagers on 

 the Missouri River to see buffaloes hopelessly mired in the quicksands 

 or mud along the shore, either dead or dying, and to find their dead 

 bodies floating down the river, or lodged on the upper ends of the islands 

 and sand-bars. 



Such accidents as these ; it may be repeated, were due to the great 

 number of animals and the momentum of the moving mass. The forced 

 marches of the great herds were like the flight of a routed army, in 

 which helpless individuals were thrust into mortal peril by the irresist- 

 ible force of the mass coming behind, which rushes blindly on after 

 their leaders. In this way it was possible to decoy a herd toward a 

 precipice and cause it to plunge over en masse, the leaders being thrust 

 over by their followers, and all the rest following of their own free will, 

 like the sheep who cheerfully leaped, one after another, through a hole 

 in the side of a high bridge because their bell-wether did so. 



But it is not to be understood that the movement of a great herd, 

 because it was made on a run, necessarily partook of the nature of a 

 stampede in which a herd sweeps forward in a body. The most graphic 

 account that I ever obtained of facts bearing on this point was furnished 

 by Mr. James McNaney, drawn from his experience on the northern 

 buffalo rauge in 1882. His party reached the range (on Beaver Creek, 

 about 100 miles south of Glendive) about the middle of November, and 

 found buffaloes already there ; in fact they had begun to arrive from the 

 north as early as the middle of October. About the first of December 

 an immense herd arrived from the north. It reached their vicinity one 

 night, about 10 o'clock, in a mass that seemed to spread everywhere. 

 As the hunters sat in their tents, loading cartridges and cleaning their 

 rifles, a low rumble was heard, which gradually increased to "a thun- 

 dering noise," and some one exclaimed, "There! that's a big herd of 

 buffalo coming in!" All ran out immediately, and hallooed and dis- 

 charged rifles to keep the buffaloes from running over their tents. For- 

 tunately, the horses were picketed some distance away in a grassy 

 coulee, which the buffaloes did not enter. The herd came at a jog trot, 

 and moved quite rapidly. "In the morning the whole country was 

 black with buffalo." It was estimated that 10,000 head were in sight. 

 One immense detachment went down on to a "flat" and laid down. 

 There it remained quietly, enjoying a long rest, for about ten days. It 

 gradually broke up into small bands, which strolled off in various 

 directions looking for food, and which the hunters quietly attacked. 



A still more striking event occurred about Christmas time at the 

 same place. For a few days the neighborhood of McNaney's camp had 



