

THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON. 465 



and red, for the robe and flesh of the cow over that furnished by the 

 bull. 



(4) The phenomenal stupidity of the animals themselves, and their 

 indifference to man. 



(5) The perfection of modern breech-loading rifles and other sporting 

 fire-arms in general. 



Each ot these causes acted against the buffalo with its full force, to 

 offset which there was not even one restraining or preserving influence, 

 and it is not to be wondered at that the species went down before them. 

 Had any one ot these conditions been eliminated the result would have 

 been reached far less quickly. Bad the buffalo, for example, possessed 

 one-half the fighting qualities of the grizzly bear he would have fared 

 very differently, but his inoffensiveness and lack of courage almost 

 leads one to doubt the wisdom of the economy of nature so far as it 

 relates to him. 



II. Methods of Slaughter. 



1. The still-hunt. — Of all the deadly methods of buffalo slaughter, the 

 still-hunt was the deadliest. Of all the methods that were unsports- 

 manlike, unfair, ignoble, and utterly reprehensible, this was in every 

 respect the lowest and the worst. Destitute of nearly every element 

 of the buoyant excitement and spice of danger that accompanied genu- 

 ine buffalo hunting on horseback, the still-hunt was mere butchery of 

 the tamest and yet most cruel kind. About it there was none of the 

 true excitement of the chase ; but there was plenty of greedy eagerness 

 to " down" as many "head" as possible every day, just as there is in 

 every slaughter-house where the killers are paid so much per head. 

 Judging from all accounts, it was about as exciting and dangerous work 

 as it would be to go out now and shoot cattle on the Texas or Montana 

 ranges. The probabilities are, however, that shooting Texas cattle 

 would be the most dangerous ; for, instead of running from a man on 

 foot, as the buffalo used to do, range cattle usually charge down upon 

 him, from motives of curiosity, perhaps, and not infrequently place his 

 life in considerable jeopardy. 



The buffalo owes his extermination very largely to his own unparalleled 

 stupidity ; for nothing else could by any possibility have enabled the 

 still-hunters to accomplish what they did in such an incredibly short 

 time. So long as the chase on horseback was the order of the day, it 

 ordinarily required the united efforts of from fifteen to twenty-five 

 hunters to kill a thousand buffalo in a single season ; but a siugle still- 

 hunter, with a long-range breech-loader, who knew how to make a 

 u sneak" and get "a stand on a bunch," often succeeded in killing 

 from one to three thousand in one season 03- his own unaided efforts. 

 Oapt. Jack Brydges, of Kansas, who was one of the first to begin 

 the final slaughter of the southern herd, killed, by contract, one thou- 

 sand one hundred and forty-two buffaloes in six weeks. 

 H. Mis. 600, pt, 2 30 



