A REMINISCENCE OF BUFFALO DA YS. 



117 



arc! exposed a plate on them, before we 

 dressed them. 



The boys over at camp were in great 

 luck, too. It began to snow, and soon the 

 ground was covered with a good tracking 

 snow. Deer proved plentiful and a number 

 of bear trails were found, but no bear were 

 killed. 



When the boys came over from camp 



they brought with them 5 deer they had 

 killed. 



Not being market hunters, and having all 

 the game we wanted, and sport enough to 

 last a year, we turned our faces toward 

 home. This was our sixth trip to the Gau- 

 lies, in which time we have killed 2>7 deer, 

 3 bears, 55 wild turkeys, and a large amount 

 of smaller game. 



A REMINISCENCE OF BUFFALO DAYS. 



BY CAPT. H. ROMEYN, U. S. A. 



The plains of Western Kansas furnish a 

 rich field for the fossil hunter. They have, 

 in pre-historic ages, been the bed of a shal- 

 low sea, and in the blue shale, which under- 

 lies most of this area, and crops out in the 

 sides of the wind and rain-swept buttes, the 

 geologist and palaeontologist find many 

 rare and valuable specimens. During the 

 years in which I served in that region, sev- 

 eral of the first scientists of the country 

 paid visits to the sections lying about Forts 

 Hayes and Wallace, and many of their dis- 

 coveries were valuable. They generally 

 came to the posts provided with letters or 

 orders from Department Commanders, or 

 from the Secretary of War, directing com- 

 manding officers to furnish them with such 

 escorts as could be spared, and the duty 

 was one sought after by both officers and 

 enlisted men. The professors were gener- 

 ally genial men, good talkers, and ready to 

 impart information to any one who wished 

 it. One, a naturalist, who looked after the 

 things of the present as well as of past 

 ages, created a commotion at a dinner 

 table one day, when a small snake, which, 

 for want of a better place to confine it, he 

 had placed in an inside pocket of his coat, 

 and covered with his handkerchief, es- 

 caped from it to the table, just as the com- 

 pany had seated themselves. The ophidian 

 was as- harmless as an antelope, but the 

 stampede was complete, and the really 

 strange and beautiful "sarpint" was mashed 

 out of all proportions by the boot-heel of 

 one of the gentlemen present before it 

 could be recaptured by its owner. 



But " the champion bone-hunter," as he 

 was designated by the soldiers, was a pro- 

 fessor of palaeontology from one of the 

 Eastern colleges, who was accustomed to 

 make extended tours with classes of stu- 

 dents of his favorite science; and who. ex- 

 cept in the instance about to be related, 

 had no use for any bones that did not ante- 

 date Old Father Adam; and the further 

 back they had existed, the better. Not 

 wagon loads only, but carloads of fossils 

 were found and shipped by him, and he was 



known to have worked for days, with a pick 

 and spade, unearthing a single specimen. 



His first visit was made the next autumn 

 after the events already related had oc-i 

 curred. With a dozen or more of students, 

 he had spent weeks in the valley of Snake 

 river, in Idaho, and, on his way East, 

 stopped at Fort Wallace, with 3 or 4 of his 

 party. His time was limited, but he wished 

 to take a look at the country, and to see a 

 buffalo hunt, as he had not seen any of 

 these animals in a wild state. They could 

 be found within a few miles of the post, and 

 the morning after his arrival 2 officers, with 

 half a dozen mounted soldiers, reported as 

 his escort for the hunt. His party was fur- 

 nished with an ambulance for the trip, and 

 I handed him a rifle and 40 rounds of am- 

 munition. The students had their own 

 Winchesters. He thanked me, but said he 

 did not need the rifle. He " had no desire 

 to do any shooting; was only going to look 

 on," etc., but yielded on being told that no 

 one was allowed to leave the post without 

 being armed. 



The officers took seats with the party in 

 the ambulance, for the time, leading their 

 saddled horses, while the mounted enlisted 

 men accompanied a wagon that was taken 

 along to bring in the beef. Only a cursory 

 examination of the rocky defiles was made, 

 the savant deciding at once that they con- 

 tained no fossils, and the party was soon 

 near the head of one of the ravines, from 

 which egress to the prairie above was prac- 

 ticable for vehicles. A man sent ahead to 

 reconnoitre, reported several small herds 

 on the prairie not far away, and tightening 

 their pistol-belts, and the " cinches " of 

 their saddles, the officers threw their outer 

 coats into the ambulance, and mounted for 

 the run. The " fossil party " were told that 

 they could see most of the chase from some 

 rising ground half a mile ahead, to which 

 the driver was directed to proceed. The 

 visitors were also cautioned to keep a look- 

 out for other game, which was probably in 

 other ravines, and would run for the prairie 

 as soon as it " winded " the hunters. 



