EDITOR'S CORNER. 



337 



Drawings should be packed flat and 

 with a sufficient quantity of straw 

 board to keep them from being dam- 

 aged in the mails ; and on account of 

 the required writing on the backs of 

 the drawings it will be necessary to 

 prepay them at letter postage rates. 



Address drawings and correspon- 

 dence relating thereto, Art Editor 

 Recreation, 23 West 24th Street, 

 New York City. 



In these days of frenzied competi- 

 tion in the making of literature a pub- 

 lication must have a reason iGr its 

 existence or it can not exist long. 



Recreation's mission on earth is 

 the preservation of the wild animals, 

 birds, game fishes and the forests of 

 this country. One way* in which it is 

 accomplishing its work is by rebuking 

 men who slaughter game, fish and 

 song birds. In the 10 years of its life 

 Recreation has made a reputation 

 for itself in this field that is unique, 

 and that has extended to all parts of 

 the English speaking world. This 

 magazine is loved, revered and quoted 

 by all good sportsmen and nature 

 lovers. Other things being equal, 

 these people buy the goods advertised 

 m Recreation, in preference to those 

 not so advertised. 



If, therefore, you have anything to 

 sell to good people advertise it in 

 Recreation and you will hear from 

 thousands of its readers. 



SOME OF MATTESON'S MISTAKES. 



In Collier's Weekly of August 20, 1904, 

 appeared an article signed by Sumner W. 

 Matteson, entitled "The Passing of the Buf- 

 falo," in which there are a number of errors. 

 These are of so serious and so misleading a 

 nature that they should not be allowed to 

 pass without correction. 



In the opening paragraph of his story Mr. 

 Matteson says : "In the badlands of the 

 Flathead country there is a herd of over 300 

 buffaloes running at large." 



There are no badlands, properly speaking, 

 in the Flathead country. That is a level, 

 fertile, beautiful valley, nearly 100 miles 

 long, drained by the Flathead river and en- 

 closed on both sides by high, rocky moun- 

 tains. 



Farther on Mr. Matteson says : 



"The buffalo herd now in the badlands 

 are where humans seldom venture, and 

 where they are watched over by a herder 

 who scarcely ever leaves his ambush except 

 to secure provisions." 



This statement is ridiculous. There are 

 now living in that country some hundreds 

 of Flathead Indians, and white men who are 

 married to Indian squaws, and there has 

 probably not been a day in any summer 

 month during the past 10 years that white 

 men from other places have not traveled 

 through the Flathead valley on some of the 

 main roads or trails which traverse it. 



The herder is not in ambush and does 

 not have to leave the range to get provi- 

 sions. He can sleep in a good frame house 

 every night and eat at a table, with a family, 

 at least twice every day without neglecting 

 his charge. 



Prof. M. J. Elrod, of the State Univer- 

 sity of Montana, writes me on this point as 

 follows : 



"The herder has but a few miles to travel 

 to get to settlers' homes. The main trav- 

 eled road crosses the Flathead valley, trav- 

 eled daily by many teams and regularly by 

 a stage and is used by hundreds of people 

 every week. I have seen buffalo on the 

 roadside while passing along, and it is but 

 a journey of an hour or 2 from the road to 

 where the buffalo usually roam." 



Here is another misleading statement: 



"It seems fitting that this natural range, 

 from which the buffalo were all killed off 

 in the early 50's by the Hudson bay traders, 

 should offer a hope of reclaiming the beast. - ' 



Early in the 70's a few buffaloes still re- 

 mained in the Mission range, and in 1875 

 4 yearlings were there caotured alive by a 

 half breed." 



No buffaloes were ever killed in the Flat- 

 head valley by Hudson bay traders, or any 

 one else. Not since 1840 has the buffalo 

 inhabited any portion of that country, even 

 if it ever did. There is no evidence that it 

 ever inhabited the Mission range, which is 

 one of the highest and most precipitous por- 

 tions of the Rocky mountain system. On 

 the contrary, in 1873, a party of Flathead 

 Indians crossed the Rocky range into East- 

 ern Montana, to hunt buffalo, as had been 

 their custom for years. They saw there evi- 

 dence that the Westward march of so-called, 

 civilization, preceded by an army of skin 

 hunters from the States, would soon wipe 

 out the buffalo. So these Flatheads cap- 

 tured 3 calves and carried them across the 

 mountains on their ponies, feeding them 

 meantime on mare's milk. When the In- 

 dians arrived at their village they taught 

 the calves to nurse domestic cows. From 

 that beginning sprang the Allard-Pablo 

 herd of buffaloes, which in 1901 numbered 

 390 head. 



