29 



certificates show the kind of cattle actually delivered under this 

 contract. The kind of cattle paid for by the Government is indi- 

 cated by the following extract from the recoi*ds of the office of 

 the Second Auditor of the Treasury, which is taken from the offi- 

 cial receipts given by the agent to the contractor on which the 

 latter receives pay. It will be observed that the general average 

 for the whole lot is over 1,026 pounds. 



Memoranda of Beef Cattle delivered at the Red Cloud Indian 

 Agency, commencing January 1st, 1875, as appears by 

 Accounts on file in this Office. 



1875, 



Date. 



By whom furnished. 



No. of Head. 



Gross Weight. 



January 1, 



W. A. Paxton. 



641 



668,578 ■ 



February 1, 



W. A. Paxton, 



437 



451,203 



February 17, 



"W. A. Paxton, 



467 



486,114 



March 1, 



"W. A. Paxton, 



96 



99,303 



March 25, 



W. A. Paxton, 



539 



555,210 



April 1, 



W". A. Paxton, 



583 



589,061 



April 21, 



W. A. Paxton, 



Total, 



584 

 3,347 



585,115 





3,434,584 







Second Auditor's Office, 







July 



8, 1875.* 



Another fruitful source of fraud in cattle at the Red Cloud 

 Agency is the system of stampeding, which appears to have been 

 practiced there, at least, since the present Agent took charge. A 

 stampede of Texas cattle may result from various causes, and the 

 natural result of a stampede of the Agency herd would be their 

 immediate return to the contractor's herd from which they were 

 driven. While at the Agency in November, 18*74, I heard that a 

 stampede of this kind had taken place a few months before. 

 The particulars of this stampede, I afterwards learned from 

 various persons— among them Louis Reshaw, who was familiar 

 with the circumstances, and testifies to the facts in the following 

 certificate : 



* A few days after this date, the receipts for the next two lots of cattle received 

 were sent to the Second Auditor's Office. The official account is as follows: 

 "May 14th, 1875, 608 head, weighing 596,021 pounds; May 29th, 1875, 371 

 head, weighing 361,927 pounds." The average for the whole number exceeds 

 978 pounds. Part of these cattle were those examined by Lieut. Carpenter. 



