486 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



pregnated earth, which was also once their most agreeable occupation; 

 nor did they nor any of their race ever revisit the neighborhood. 



"The simple history of this spring is that of every other in the settled 

 parts of this Western World ; the carnage of beasts was everywhere the 

 same. I met with a man who had killed two thousand buffaloes with 

 his own hand, and others no doubt have done the same thing. In 

 consequence of such proceedings not one buffalo is at this time to be 

 found east of the Mississippi, except a few domesticated by the curious, 

 or carried through the country on a public show." 



But, fortunately, there is no evidence that such slaughter as that de- 

 scribed by Mr. Ashe was at all common, and there is reason for the 

 belief that until within the last forty years the buffalo was sacrificed 

 in ways conducive to the greatest good of the greatest number. 



From Goronado to General Fremont there has hardly been an ex- 

 plorer of United States territory who has not had occasion to bless the 

 bison, and its great value to mankind can hardly be overestimated, 

 although by many it can readily be forgotten. 



The disappearance of the bison from the eastern United States was 

 due to its consumption as food. It was very gradual, like the march 

 of civilization, and, under the circumstances, absolutely inevitable. In 

 a country so thickly peopled as this region speedily became, the mas- 

 todon could have survived extinction about as easily as the bison. Ex- 

 cept when the latter became the victim of wholesale slaughter, there was 

 little reason to bemoan his fate, save upon grounds that may be re- 

 garded purely sentimental, He served a most excellent purpose in 

 the development of the country. Even as late as 1875 the farmers of 

 eastern Kansas were in the habit of making trips every fall into the 

 western part of that State for wagon loads of buffalo meat as a supply 

 for the succeeding winter. The farmers of Texas, ^Nebraska, Dakota, 

 and Minnesota also drew largely upon the buffalo as long as the supply 

 lasted. 



The extirpation of the bison west of the Rocky Mountains was due 

 to legitimate hunting for food and clothing rather than for marketable 

 peltries. In no part of that whole region was the species ever numer- 

 ous, although in the mountains themselves, notably in Colorado, within 

 easy reach of the great prairies on the east, vast numbers were seen 

 by the early explorers and pioneers. But to the westward, away from 

 the mountains, they were very rarely met with, and their total destruc- 

 tion in that region was a matter of easy accomplishment. According 

 to Prof. J. A. Allen the complete disappearance of the bison west of 

 the Eocky Mountains took place between 1838 and 1840. 



2. The Period of Systematic Slaughter, from 1830 to 18 58. 



We come now to a history which I would gladly leave unwritten. 

 Its record is a disgrace to the American people in general, and the 

 Territorial, State, and General Government in particular. It will cause 



