3^4 



RECREATION. 



down the hillside, bounding high at every 

 leap. A second and third shots followed 

 in rapid succession, and with an unsuc- 

 cessful attempt to clear some fallen brush 

 the deer fell in a lifeless heap. 

 The game proved a spike buck. One 



of the dogs ventured to creep up and lick 

 the blood from the deer's nose, but a 

 warning growl from Watch sent him hast- 

 ily back. The deer was quickly prepared 

 for packing, the dogs given their share, 

 and the hunt for that day was over.* 



AN APPEAL FOR THE BUFFALO BILL. 



HON. W. D. JENKINS, SECRETARY OF THE STATE OF IDAHO. 



I want to add a word in support of 

 Lacy's House Bill No. 6,062 and urge its 

 adoption. In doing so I must make the 

 humiliating confession that I was one of 

 the number who, in the early '70s, on the 

 plains of Western Kansas and on the 

 Cimeron in the Texas Panhandle, assisted 

 in the ruthless slaughter and extermination 

 of those grand old monarchs of the prai- 

 ries, the American buffalo. Well do I re- 

 member how, at a single stand, with our 

 "big .50s," we would cut down 50 to 100 

 of these noble animals, whose hides and 

 horns were taken, and the remainder of the 

 carcases left on the prairies to bleach in 

 the sun or afford food for the ravenous 

 coyotes. Our party consisted of 3 hunt- 

 ers, "one of whom I was which/' together 

 with skinners, cooks and teamsters, about 

 30 in all. In the winter of '71 and '72 we 

 collected 3,000 skins. Ours was only one 

 party of many engaged in this unholy 

 depredation. The question of the final ex- 

 tinction of the buffalo was frequently dis- 

 cussed around evening camp fires, and it 

 was generally admitted that at the rate of 

 killing then going on the buffalo would 

 become, within 50 years, not extinct, but 

 scarce and difficult to secure. My first rec- 

 ollection of the buffalo dates back to 1859, 

 when they roamed the region then known 

 on the maps of all school geographies as 

 the Great American Desert, in almost 

 countless millions. For miles and miles, 

 as far as the eye could reach over a -level 

 plain, the surface of the earth seemed lit- 

 erally covered with this black, moving 

 mass of noble animals. It was not until 

 in the early '70s that the buffalo were 

 taken for their skins alone. Prior to that 

 time they were hunted by the Indian, the 

 emigrant and the frontier settler solely for 

 food and robes. In looking back now it 

 seems strange there was not sufficient fore- 

 sight on the part of our lawmakers in Con- 



gress to protect and preserve at least a 

 remnant of this horde of America's great- 

 est game. Personally, I have many times, 

 in maturer years, felt the humiliation that 

 should so justly attach to those who par- 

 ticipated in its wholesale slaughter and de- 

 struction. The buffalo I have taken in the 

 chase, when, mounted on fleet ponies, we 

 rode miles, up hill and down, through 

 prairie-dog towns and over shallow 

 streams, and with trusty carbines finally 

 brought the noble game to his knees, were 

 the fruits of genuine sport. Had that 

 method of taking the buffalo been the only 

 one resorted to these splendid animals 

 would yet remain in the sparsely settled 

 regions of the West. 



All honor is due Col. J. C. Jones, "Buf- 

 falo Jones," for the interest he has ever 

 manifested in preserving specimens of this 

 American game that would, were it not 

 for his fostering care, long since have be- 

 come extinct. Let every sportsman in the 

 land urge the passage of the Lacy bill. 

 The vast herds cannot be restored, but 

 magnificent specimens of the noblest spe- 

 cies of wild game may yet be preserved. 

 Specimens of these should be in all the 

 large parks and zoological gardens of the 

 land. 



Let us push House Bill 6,062. Should it 

 pass, I have promised myself a trip all the 

 way to the proposed reservation in South- 

 east New Mexico for the purpose of per- 

 sonally thanking Buffalo Jones for his 

 grand work, and for the further purpose 

 of apologizing to the surviving descen- 

 dents of that superb race of animals that I, 

 in the exuberance of youth and indiscre- 

 tion, at one time aided, assisted and abetted 

 their extermination. 



*You should not hunt deer with clogs. Nearly all States 

 p ohibit this by law, which shows the sentiment of the best 

 sportsmen on the subject. — Editor, 



