July 16, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



489 



CONFESSIONS OF A BUFFALO BUTCHER. 



IN reply to Mr. J. A. Allen's inquiry in regard to the 

 presenl distribution of the American bison and their ex- 

 termination in certain localities, I will say that I am thor- 

 oughly acquainted with the country of which I shall speak, 

 and know personally a great many men who have followed 

 the buffalo for from live to fifteen years, and done nothing 

 but hunjt for a large part of that time, and have now gone 

 to work for a living like other decent people. 1 hope that I 

 will be able to give l he readers of the Forest and Stream 

 a tolerably good idea of the manner in which the noblest and 

 best American game was destroyed. The hundreds of true 

 sportsmen who yet hope to visit the great plains and bad 

 lands and see a buffalo in his native wilds are just ,wo years 

 too late. The buffalo is gone, and there's nothing half so 

 grand now iii North America as a herd of bulfalo. 



During the month of October, 1883, two companions and 

 myself fitted up a hunting rig for the purpose of making an 

 all-winter camp somewhere on the buffalo range. Contrary 

 to all previous experience it was impossible at that time to 

 locate any large bauds of buffalo anywhere in the North- 

 west, but they had been most frequently met with on the 

 high divides, on the south side of the Yellowstone River, with 

 their western limit defined in a general way by Powder 

 River, and extending eastward well toward the Missouri, 

 and south to within sixty or seventy milesof the Black Hills. 

 Reference to a map of 'Montana and Dakota will give the 

 reader a fair idea of the country south of the Yellowstone, 

 which was at that time occupied as a winter range by the 

 buffalo. It embraces the valleys of all tributaries to Powder 

 River from the east, all of the valleys of Beaver Creek, 

 O'Fallon Creek and the Little Missouri and Moreau rivers, 

 and both forks of the Cannon Ball for almost half their 

 length! This immense territory, lying almost equally in 

 Montana and Dakota, had been occupied during the winters 

 by many thousands of buffaloes from time immemorial, and 

 many of the cows remained during the summer and brought 

 forth their young undisturbed. 



Having left Miles City, Mont., on the 2yd of October We 

 crossed Powder River oh the 25th about twenty live miles 

 from its mouth, and plunged at once into the Bad frauds to 

 hud a favorable location for a temporary camp, until such 

 time as we could locate the main herd and find out some- 

 thing about, the movements of vaiious bauds of Indians and 

 half breeds with which the country was infested. 



We camped about six miles east of Powder River, on a 

 little creek coming down through a narrow valley between 

 impassible bad lands, and having its source away up on the 

 high plateau which forms the divide between O'Fallon Creek 

 and Powder River. We found excellent pasture in this little 

 valley aud abundant indications that it was frequented by 

 small bands of buffalo. 



On the morning of the 36th we all left camp in different 

 directions to look the country over aud sec what we could 

 find in the way of game. "Taking the. north side <of the 

 valley, I traveled for two hours or more diagons lly away 

 from" the creek, finding signs plenty, but Without seeing any 

 game until 1 ascended a very high butte, about live miles 

 from camp, which, from its dark and forbidding looks, we 

 had named the evening before Black Mountain. 



The country north and ea'st of where I stood is high, dry 

 and hilly, ami about one-third of it is covered with low. 

 scrubby" pine. From the top of Black Mountain 1 could 

 see a small band of buffalo about three-quarters of a mile 

 away. They were lying down and evidently unsuspicious 

 of any danger. Hastily descending, I took the lowest ground 

 in a direction that would give me the advantage of the wind, 

 hejng fl '" ni them to me, and occasionally looked over a knoll 

 > if they were still quiet. Having placed myself to 

 ird of them, and the ground being favorable, I had no 

 difficulty in walking up to within about seventy yards of 

 them. 



Peeping over the top of a little ridge 1 found that they had 

 got up and were quickly feeding along against the wind and 

 occasionally holding their noses up for a long snuff as though 

 their keen sence of smell had already given them a suspicion 

 that alJ was not right. 



Lying close on the ground I waited until one turned his 

 Bide-to me, and then taking a quick aim fired a shot which 

 was instantly fatal, That was the very thing I did not in- 

 tend to do. The one struck fell at the report of my gun, 

 kicked his legs in the air, and as his lungs collapsed he let 

 out a short roar like groan and was dead. The others, five 

 in number, bounded into the air, took one quick look 

 around, saw their fallen fellow and the white cloud slowly 

 lifting above where I lay and then before I could slip in 

 another cartridge they tossed their tails and proceeded to "fill 

 the air with alkali dust and accumulate intervening space" 

 with a celerity that would have done justice to Mark Twain's 

 jack rabbit. 



My rifle was a Sharps .45-cal. hammerless and loaded with 

 120 grains of Dupont FG powder, and the U. 8. Govern- 

 ment 405-grain grooved bullet, hardened with about eight 

 per cert, of block tin Every rifleman will know that that 

 ought to be a wonderfully powerful cartridge, as indeed it is, 

 yet from experience in many similar cases I knew it would 

 be worse than useless to shoot at a buffalo from behind, so I 

 lay perfectly still and kept raising my sight as they got further 

 away hoping that they would change their course enough to 

 present a quartering shot, but was disappointed, and for all 1 

 know to the contrary they may be going yet. 



On examination I found that I had a splendid threeyear- 

 old bull. My bullet had struck him in the shoulder quite 

 low, smashed the big bones, passed directly through the 

 heart and made a hole over an inch in diameter where it 

 came out. I also found a sliver of bone sticking through the 

 hide two or three inches from where the bullet came out, 

 which proved to be a piece of the shoulder blade from the 

 side away from me. Struck in the same spot with a common 

 lead Mllet he would probably have run off on three legs to 

 die several days later. Our bullets were calculated to upset 

 a little when striking the largest bones, but would usually 

 hold their form and go straight through. Every buffalo 

 shooter tries to avoid giving a shot that will kill on the spot, 

 well knowing that if such a one is given it will probably be 

 his last at that band. The following account of our work 

 at another band will give the reader an idea of the methods 

 employed by hunters who can keep cool enough to hold 

 themselves down to business. Considering the perfection of 

 the guns used and the peculiar characteristics of the game, 

 the wonder is not that the buffalo is gone, but that they were 

 not all killed yeais ago. 



The first few days of our hunt around Black Mountain 

 proving quite successful, we decided to make our location 

 permanent, and built us three camps endurable in all kinds 

 of weather, the two extremes being about twenty- five miles 

 apart. 



By the middle of January we had stacked at our various 

 camps 236 cow atid calf robes and about 200 buffalo hams. 

 Many of those killed were so far away or in such inaccess- 

 ible country that the only part saved was the robe and 

 tongue. 



The weather now became so severe that it was impossible 

 to do anything in the way of hunting, and we laidby for 

 three weeks doing nothing but to look after our ponies and 

 cut wood. 



On the. 8th of February the wind came from the west and 

 the weather rapidly moderated, aud on the morning of the 

 lOili. it, being evident that a thaw was coming on, we once 

 more sallied forth to see if we could see any thing to shoot at. 

 1 hunted without success until along in the afternoon, when 

 I heard a shot about half a, mile away and 1 immediately 

 started for the place from which the sound came. 1 counted 

 two. three, four, five, aud that sharp, wicked crack 1 kucw 

 came from Price's .40-90. No other gun talks like a . 40-cali- 

 ber Sharps with 90 grains of Dupont. 



About three shots to the miuute! "That means buff, 

 sure!" and I found myself scrambling over logs, dodging 

 pine limbs, and Wallowing through snow at a break-neck 

 rate, until completely winded, I took a more moderate gait 

 and soon saw Price lying on top of a ridge among some 

 broken rocks and pumping away at something in the valley 

 beyond. Creeping up alongside of him I saw a little herd 

 of" twenty-five or thirty cows and young bulls standing 

 huddled together at the foot of the bill and some eight or ten 

 lying stretched out on the snow. 



' Buffalo in herds will not run as a general thing except to 

 follow their leader, or from danger in plain view. Their 

 senses of sight and bearing are not very acute, and by taking- 

 advantage of the wind if is no trouble to get quite close to 

 them. If a band is standing and one of them is struck by 

 a bullet, the one struck wilf bound into the air and run, all 

 the rest following, and if he stops from weakness they all 

 stop. If shot fairly through the lungs a buffalo will run 

 from fi fly to one hundred yards, stop, turn once or twice 

 around like a dog that is making a good place in which to 

 lie. fie then quietly lies dowu, his head sinks to the ground, 

 and he dies without a struggle. 



When I crawled up to Price he turned and whispered to 

 me, "Now you keep your lingers out of this pie. I've got 

 them to stand and I'll get the whole band." 



Presently one stepped out at a brisk walk for a leader, but 

 before he threw himself forward for a run Price had sent, a 

 bullet through his fibs. He made a few frantic lunges, 

 stopped, turned around and laid down as quietly as though 

 nothing was wrong. In less than a minute he was far 

 enough goue to require no more attention. The same thing- 

 was done over and over. As soon as one stepped out for a 

 leader he was shot, aud the herd always stopped withhim, 

 Present ly Price asked me to hand up my gun anil take his and 

 wipe it out. I willingly passed it up, along with half a hatful 

 of cartridges, and taking out my field cleaner started to clean 

 his gun, when I was surprised to hear two shots in quick suc- 

 cession followed by a blast of execrations that fairly turned 

 the air blue. It seems that an old cow had started, and Price 

 had miscalculated the distance and shot clean over her. 

 Quick as he was about getting in another cartridge she got 

 underway and caught the bullet through the abdomen. Of 

 course she did not stop, aud the remnant of the herd fol- 

 lowed her out of sight. Price didn't, swear (?). Oh.no! he 

 wasn't mad enough. He just waltzed around the whole top 

 of the ridge, kicked the stones, tramped my ammunition 

 into the snow, and condemned that condemned pot-bellied 

 pea slinger to blankety, blankety, blank, blank, blank, and 

 ended by sticking her up to the lock in a snowbank and 

 marching off down the hill caressing his own gun, and 

 growling like a bear with a sore head. 



We counted up the kill and had twenty-seven dead, all fine 

 robes; a little bleached on the hump, but salable for all that. 

 On the way home that night, and just before dusk, I 

 killed a black-tailed deer at the second shot at a good 500 

 yards. When he fell 1 turned to Price and remarked, that 

 the pot-bellied pea slinger always comes up smiling for the 

 last round. 



The next day we finished skinning, and got the last of the 

 haras home a week later. We turned in in the spring 286 

 robes at an average price of $2.20, and a large quantity of 

 meat at three cents a pound, besides 400 pounds of deer and 

 antelope hides. We also sold during the winter at the Gov- 

 ernment sawmill on the Miles City road about ninety saddles 

 of venison. 



I was only one of probably r a thousand men who spent that 

 winter, as they had spent many preceding ones, at just the 

 kind of work I have tried to describe; and that since that 

 time the only buffalo anywhere in the Northwest have been 

 a few stragglers over the old ranges, and occasionally one or 

 two seen in the Big Horn Mountains and in remote corners 

 on the eastern slope of the Rockies. 



I know that the readers of Forest and Stream will say 

 "slaughter, slaughter," and "pot-hunter," Gentlemen, I 

 plead guilty. That's exactly what it was. However, if you 

 are ever in Montana, with a long, cold winter comiug on 

 and only a few dollars in your pockets, and you know there's 

 a clean thousand dollars for a winter's work at "pot- 

 hunting" — well, 1 don't ask you to say what you would do, 

 but you know what I did. " L. 



Minnesota, July, 1885. 



it is evident that the three are meant to include one that he 

 had killed after it had been slightly wounded by his com- 

 panion, and not an extra bear, making the whole number 

 six. 



Again he quotes the author as saying that "only seven 

 shots were required to bring down all tlie grizzlies," while 

 the reader may count up eleven shots mentioned as being 

 made at them. What the author actually says is this; "We 

 killed our five grizzlies will) seven bullets." Not counting 

 the shot which "F. A. M." invents for his imaginary sixth 

 bear, there were ten shots fired in all, three of which were 

 misses; but could we expect Mr. Roosevelt without a heavy 

 conscience to declare that the bears were killed with bullets 

 which never touched them? If your wild Western corres- 

 pondent should incautiously charge his next door neighbor 

 with what he has presumed to charge sucii a prominent man 

 as Mr. Roosevelt, and the neighbor should naturally shy an 

 old boot over the fence at his head, and, missing the mark, 

 should try a bootjack with better success, would the coroner's 

 jury find that became to his end from the effects of a boot- 

 jack and a boot, or simply of the bootjack? W. E. B. 



Long Branch, July 11. 



THE GAME PROSPECTS. 



Editor Forest and Stno/m; 



Grouse are abuudant this year, and the prospects for fall 

 shooting are good. II. 11. Lewis. 



Seattle, Washington Territory, June 39. 



Erlidor Forest and Stream: 



Quail and chickens wintered splendidly, and bid fair to 

 be very plenty this fall. Chickens are nearly all hatched 

 now. In traveling over the prairie one will see all sizes from 

 one day to four weeks. H. B. A 



Solomon City, Kansas, June 29. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In regard to prairie chickens the outlook is very encourag- 

 ing. 1 lmow of four broods that are one-third grown. 

 Quail are plenty. 1 fed a flock of eight during last winter, 

 and they became quite tame, and now one old hen quail 

 brings her brood into the farmyard every evening. 



Nimrod, Jr. 



Leavenworth, Kansas, July 7. 



STILL-HUNTING THE GRIZZLY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Permit me to raise my voice in defense of the veracity of 

 Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, as assailed by your correspondent 

 "F. A. M." in your last number. He is accused of writing- 

 fiction under false pretenses, on the mere ground of a little 

 want of clearness in one or two passages in the article in 

 question, and justice requires that your readers may judge 

 for themselves on this point. 



To give expression to his doubt as to whether Mr. Roose- 

 velt's article descriptive of grizzly bear hunts has any real 

 foundation in fact, he mentions two instances wherein he 

 claims that the author has contradicted himself on important 

 points. He also somewhat misconstrues aud takes issue 

 with him on a question of the ferocity of the animal, but his 

 cry of fraud is based entirely on what he is pleased to term 

 "little incongruities," which I have just mentioned. 



First he accuses Mr. Roosevelt of stating in one place that 

 he and his companion on their hunt killed five bears, and in 

 another place of giving the number as six. This idea he 

 must have gathered solely from the following sentence: "As 

 Merrifield had not yet killed a grizzly purely to his own gun, 

 and I had killed three, I told him to take the shot." From 

 a strict interpretation of this sentence, one would infer that 

 the writer had killed three bears purely to his own gun ; but. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Comparatively few Philadelphia sportsmen were out for 

 woodcock on the 4th of the mouth, the majority of located 

 broods having been killed a week ago. On Tinicum Island 

 and the cripples in the same neighborhood a few birds were 

 shot by Lazaretto gunners, aud Black's Swamp, on Raccoon 

 Creek[ furnished a half dozen to Bridgeport shootiug men. 

 The rain which has fallen within the past twenty-four hours 

 and the wet weather which now threatens may have the 

 effect of scattering what few woodcock that are left around 

 Philadelphia aud save some for the fall shooting. Upland 

 plover have hatched in good numbers in interior Pennsyl- 

 vania, many birds having bred in Lehigh and Carbon 

 counties. Almost every small mountain meadow, valley has 

 had three or four nests. The young plover are already fairly 

 strong and will soon be on the wing; the older ones, however, 

 have not yet ceased their mating note, which they will con- 

 tinue to utter until the young are entirely grown. A large 

 crop of reed is reported as growing this year on the river 

 shores, the early sprouts being unusually thick and strong. 

 If the growth of seed is good we may look for many rail 

 birds. A large crop, however, means hard pushing. 



Homo. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



SOME REMARKABLE SHOTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A party of miners were out on a prospecting trip in East- 

 ern Utah, near the line of the State of Colorado. They 

 were out of meat, aud in making camp about dusk one 

 evening, after a hard day's tramp, the best shot in the party 

 took his rifle and said he would go out and bring in a deer 

 while the others were looking after the horses, preparing 

 supper, etc. He had not gone over a quarter of a mile from 

 camp, when, after crossing a low ridge, he saw a fine buck 

 lying behind a large, fiat rock. The bead and horns were 

 all that were to be seen, and it was evident that the deer had 

 not seen our hunter. Taking sight for a center shot in the 

 forehead, he whanged away and was sure he had hit the 

 maik. He thought there was a slight tremor, but otherwise 

 there was no movement made by the deer, and the head and 

 horns were still erect and visible. Throwing another cart- 

 ridge into the barrel, he ran down to where the deer lay, 

 feeling very confident that it was his meat; but imagine his 

 surprise when he found he had shot at an old dry sage brush 

 having a remarkable resemblance to the head and horns of a 

 deer — the gathering darkness had lent its aid to the decep- 

 tion. Upon examination he found he had made a center shot, 

 which was some balm to his wounded feeling. It was a long 

 time before the boys stopped joking him about his shot at a 

 sage brush to furnish a hungry party with food. 



Barchland. 



Silver City, Utah. 



Killed olt op Season by a Buck, — An Olean, N. Y., 

 letter, July 11, to the Sun, says: Orrin Walcott. aged 70, 

 was one of the oldest hunters and trappers in McKean 

 county, Pa. For over fifty years he lived near Port Alle- 

 gheny, and had many thrilling adventures during his life in 

 the woods. Near the headwaters of one of the branches of 

 the Allegheny River there is a deer lick, one that has been 

 visited by hunters ever since the first settlers came into the 

 region. A few days ago Walcott and his son-in-law went to 

 the deer lick to watch for deer. They remained in ambush 

 all night, but did not get a shot at a deer. In the morning 

 the old man told his son-in-law to fish down the stream two 

 miles, while he struck through the woods with his gun. He 

 said he would meet his son-in-law at an old salt spring two 

 miles down the creek. The son-in law waited until night 

 but the old man did not appear, and it was thought that he 

 had struck the trail of a deer and was followiug it. Three 

 days passed, aud Walcott not having returned, a search was 

 made for him. His dead body was found yesterday in a 

 dense forest, four miles from the salt lick. His gun was 

 lying twenty feet away, empty. His clothing was badly 

 torn, and there were bruises on his head and breast. From 

 the surroundings it was apparent that there had been a 

 severe struggle. The opinion is that the old hunter had 

 wounded a buck, which had turned on him and trampled 

 him to death. 



