24 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 30, 1890. 



BUFFALO TYPES.* 



THERE has recently been issued from the Govern- 

 ment Printing Office an extremely interesting vol- 

 ume entitled "The Extermination of the American 

 Bison." The author, Mr. W. T. Hornaday, Superintend- 

 ent of the National Zoological Park, was sent out in the 

 year 1886 to collect for the National Museum a series of 

 specimens of the buffalo from the few which were still 

 known to range on the heads of Dry Fork and Porcupine 

 creeks in Montana, where in the3rough bad-land country 

 there still remained some survivors of the large band 

 from which the Crees and iNorthern half-breeds made 

 then- last great killing in 1883— practically the last robes 

 that were traded on the Upper Missouri. Mr. Hornaday 

 succeeded ia securing from these scattered individuals a 

 fine series of specimens, some of which, beautifully 

 mounted, now grace the halls of the National Museum 

 at Washingn. Besides the specimens which he had col- 

 lected, Mr. Hornaday brought back with him from the 

 West a great enthusiasm for the buffalo, which led him 

 to investigate the subject of its extinction and the causes 

 of this extinction, and the results of his studies on this 

 subject are given us in this interesting paper. 



This volume forms a part of the Report of the National 

 Museum for 1886-87, pages 369 to 548, and includes XXII. 

 plates and a map. It is divided into three parts; the first 

 treating of the life history of the buffalo, the second of 

 its extermination, and the third of the Smithsonian ex- 

 pedition for specimens. All these parts are fully dealt 

 with, and a great deal of interesting information is 

 brought together which is of permanent historical value. 



In Part I. Mr. Hornaday tells us of the discovery of 

 this species, its geographical distribution, abundance, 

 character, habits, food, mental capacity and disposition, 

 value to man, and of the economic value of this animal 

 to Western cattle growers, a subject which has for some 

 years been more or less prominent in the newspapers, 

 and one whose importance cannot be doubted. In Part 

 II. he gives the causes of the extermination, the methods 

 of slaughter, the progress of the work of extermination, 

 a history of the legislation looking toward the protection 

 of the species, remarks on the completeness of the ani- 

 mal's disappearance, the effects of its disappearance, and 

 the preservation of the species from absolute extinction. 

 In Part III. the author tells us of the exploration of his 

 expedition for specimens, of the hunt, and finally of 

 the grand results now in the museum at Washington. 



The excellent illustrations add greatly to the value of 

 the work. They include a grand group of buffalo, various 

 illustrations of different ages and sexes, as well as certain 

 crosses with domestic cattle, scenes taken from the old 

 "buffalo skinning" days, and a variety of scenes of hunt- 

 ing by Indians, mostly taken from Catlin. The latter 

 are certainly not out of place in such a work, though to 

 those who have thoughtfully watched' the progress of 

 the extinction of this noble animal, the plates which 

 illustrate the methods of the hide butcher, the real de- 

 stroyer of the buffalo, are incomparably more interesting. 

 Mr. Hornaday has done a good work in gathering to- 

 gether in compact form this mass of material. His paper 

 is a useful contribution to American history, and is of 

 great scientific value. He is to be congratulated on it. 

 He makes now and then a statement with which we 

 find ourselves unable to agree, but if he has occasionally 

 fallen into error, this is only through lack of experience 

 with the animal which he is treating. His experience 

 of the buffalo does not extend back many years, and he 

 was unacquainted with the animal's nature. The buffalo 

 that he knew were a few frightened specimens that sur- 

 vived after the great northern herd had been extin- 

 ' guished. 



An erroneous statement is made when the author asserts 

 that "by a combination of unfortunate circumstances, 

 the American bison is destined to go down to posterity 

 shorn of the honor which is his due and appreciated at 

 half his worth," and expresses his conviction "that con- 

 finement and semi-domestication are destined to effect 

 striking changes in the form of Bison americaaus." He 

 says that the body of the captive animal becomes astonish- 

 ingly short and rotund, and that the living animals which 

 we see to-day "but poorly resemble the splendid propor- 

 tions of the wild specimens in the museum group." In 

 making these statements Mr. Hornaday falls into a 

 natural but serious error, and generalizing from insuffi- 

 cient data, draws conclusions which are exactly opposed 

 to the truth. 



Mr. Hornaday assumes that the buffalo which he killed 

 were typical North American bison. This is not the case; 

 they were specialized individuals of this race, which ow- 

 ing to the circumstances of their lives, had changed in 

 form and appearance, developing a new type which dif- 

 fered in many respects from those buffaloes which grazed 

 the prairies when the whites first saw them. 



A curiously similar mistake, though in quite the oppo- 

 site direction, was made by old hunters on the southern 

 range during the last years of the buffalo's existence 

 there. These men believed that the buffalo which they 

 killed during these last years were not the same animals 

 that formerly ranged the plains, and crudely expressed 

 this belief when they stated that these must be the 

 ' 'southern buffalo. " They called attention to the fact that 

 these "southern buffalo" had longer legs and lighter and 

 longer bodies than those of old times, and to the further 

 fact that they never grew fat. 



On the northern ranges, a thousand miles from where 

 these "southern buffalo" were killed, we have talked 

 with many men who all their lives had hunted these ani- 

 mals for food. These men, who include Indians, half 

 breeds and whites, are unanimous in stating that during 

 the last few years of this animal's existence they got no 

 fat buffalo. The herds were constantly on the move, 

 scarcely got time to eat or sleep, were subjected to con- 

 stant and long chases, and became continually more and 

 more wild. They seemed to change their form, too. 

 "They got to be like those dogs," said a half breed once 

 in speaking to the writer on this subject, and he pointed 

 to a lot of gaunt greyhound puppies playing before the 

 door. 



That the buffalo of captivity and semi-domestication 

 and that of the last few years of the existence of this 



♦Smithsonian Institution | United States National Museum | 



I The Extwrninaiion of the American Bison | By | William T. 



Hornaday | Superintendent of the National Zoological Park I 



JTrom the Report of the National Museum, 1886-87, pages 369-548, 



and plates I. -XXII. I Washington I Government Printing 



Office 1 1889. 



species on the plains are very different in appearance is 

 unquestionably true. The two animals are as unlike 

 as a short- horn beef steer and a gaunt Texas range cow; 

 as a fatted Berkshire hog and a wild swamp boar of the 

 Southern States. The question as to which of the two 

 types is the better has nothing to do with the matter in 

 hand; but which, if either, was the trtie, the natural, type? 

 We have not the slightest hesitation in stating that the 

 buffalo of, let us say, Hon. C. J. Jones's herd are, as 

 nearly as the eye or the memory can tell, of precisely the 

 same type as those which we used to run twentv years 

 ago. 



The buffalo that Mr. Hornaday killed were developing: 

 they were changing from the old-time, fat. sleepy beasts 

 that the hunter could shoot down by the score from his 

 stand, to a race of alert, keen-eyed, greyhound-like animals 

 that were ever on the go, and were all muscle. It is as if 

 one should take a short-horn bull and put him in training, 

 like a race horse, from the time that he was a young calf 

 until he was six or eight years old. His body would 

 leng then out, he would become a bundle of muscles, even 

 his form would appear to have changed. How would 

 such an animal compare with others of his race that had 

 been kept in a pasture and fed on the best of food? 

 The explanation of the erroneous view taken of the fig- 

 ure of the buffalo by Mr. Hornaday is this: During the 

 last ten or fifteen years of the life of this species it was 

 undergoing a process of evolution, or rather a process of 

 specialization, which is one of the steps in the evolution 

 of any species. This specialization was chiefly in the 

 direction of speed. The old-time buffalo were in sum- 

 mer, autumn and early winter, fat, short-backed, and, to 

 the eye, short-legged. As they rushed along on the 

 prairie in their headlong flight their bellies seemed almost 

 to sweep the ground; but when constantly harassed and 

 pursued, the buffalo lost this fat, became to the eye- 

 though perhaps in this short time not actually — longer- 

 legged, lighter-bodied and certainly much swifter. 



In the early days most of the hunting of buffalo in the 

 northern country was done both by Indians and whites 

 by means of running, and in this chasing the fattest and 

 so the slowest of the buffalo were killed off, and there 

 was a constant tendency for the race to grow relatively 

 more light and active, to develop speed, to become more 

 like race horses. The slimmer, the more active, the 

 faster the buffalo, the more likely it would be to escape 

 its pursuers. The progeny of these slim, active and 

 swift buffalo would be likely to inherit the characteristics 

 of their parents, and those which inherited these charac- 

 teristics in the greatest degree would have a better chance 

 to survive the dangers of the chase than their fatter fel- 

 lows. This process, which at first would be slow as the 

 number of buffalo was large in proportion to the num- 

 ber of their pursuers, would become much more rapid as 

 the great animals diminished, and at last, as the dangers 

 to which the species was exposed were more constantly 

 present, and the buffalo were continually on the move, 

 the change would take place rapidly. The development 

 would be in one direction, that of speed, and the fittest 

 would survive. The great band of buffalo, of which the 

 specimens secured by Mr. Hornaday were the survivors, 

 was that followed for a number of years previous to its 

 extermination by the Northern half- breeds, the Crees, the 

 Blackfeet, the Piegans, the Bloods, the Assinaboines, the 

 Gros Ventres, the Crows, and some bands of the Daco- 

 tas. The pursuit of these tribes was unceasing, and it 

 was uniformly done on horseback. The result was the 

 development of a type of buffalo entirely unlike the old 

 animal of twenty years ago— making, in fact, an aninul 

 formed for racing. These were the buffalo that Mr. 

 Hornaday killed. 



In confinement or in domestication the buffalo reverts 

 to its old type, loses the special greyhound-like form 

 which it had developed through much chasing, and be- 

 comes short-bodied, round-hipped, the fat, logy animal 

 that we used to know in early days; in other words, re- 

 turn to his natural type. 



We have not space to discuss at length, as we should 

 like to, the many interesting points which suggest them- 

 selves to us as we turn over the pages of this fascinating 

 book. The statistics of the slaughter of the buffalo— in- 

 complete though they are— are exceedingly interesting, 

 though we imagine that they give but little notion of the 

 numbers of buffalo really killed. All this must be mere 

 guesswork. 



The account of the efforts made by members of Con- 

 gress to secure legislation for the protection of the species 

 and the supineness of that body as a whole, form a 

 curious commentary on the carelessness and ignorance of 

 the Federal Legislature. This capital review of Mr. 

 Hornaday's will make the Americans of twenty-five 

 years hence think that their fathers were a set of extra- 

 ordinary fools. 



Mr. Hornaday's book can hardly fail to work great 

 good in the special direction of large game protection 

 and we could wish that it might have a wide general 

 circulation. The buffalo is gone beyond recall, but from 

 the story of his extinction we may draw lessons which 

 shall teach us how to preserve the elk, the moose and the 

 deer. It is to be hoped above all that legislators may 

 read this book, and that the lessons which it teaches may 

 be duly pondered and acted on. 



Wolves in Maine.— Boston, Jan. 25.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: This report is "important if true:" "The' 

 increase in the number of deer in all parts of the Maine 

 woods south of Mt.Katahdin is now accounted for by a very 

 different fact from the protection afforded by the game 

 wardens. The woods above the junction of the two main 

 branches of the Penobscot, and all north of the Katahdin, 

 are said to be infested by big gray wolves. These marau- 

 ders from Canada and Labrador are driving the deer, and 

 the hunters fear will ere long exterminate them." Can 

 any of the Forest and Stream readers give information 

 on this subject? — T. 



Where Venison is Cheap.— Portland, Me., Jan. 25.— 

 Venison has been plenty and cheap in our market all 

 winter, mo3t of it being meat seized in transit to the 

 Boston market and sold by the warden to local dealers. 

 It is a pity snared partridges never seem to attract his 

 notice. What has become of "Awahsoose?" Hi3 papers 

 on "Reynard, the New England Outlaw," and winter 

 scenery have never been excelled by Thoreau or J ohn 

 Burroughs. We miss him. — C. D. S. 



IN WISCONSIN WILDS. 



QEVILLE. Ohio.— Editor Forest and Stream: On the 

 kJ 14th day of last October, the writer, in company 

 with six other kindred spirits, left our homes in Ohio for 

 a few weeks' sojourn in the woods and among the lakes 

 of northern Wisconsin. The prime object of the expe- 

 dition was the cutting down, to some extent, of the 

 superabundance of large game supposed to be running at 

 large in that region, and the thinning out (the mitigating 

 as it were) of the overcrowded condition of the numerous 

 schools of large-mouthed bass said to people all the lakes 

 of that locality. Some of the party had been there on 

 previous occasions, and the yarns* they told the rest of 

 us were something fearful and wonderful to hear, of deer 

 snorting and pawing around the camp at nights until 

 sleep was well nigh impossible. Then as to fish, why all 

 one had to do was to build a raft of logs, shove it out 

 into any one of the lakes, bait your hook with anything 

 almost that came handy, and then hire an Indian to help 

 carry home ttie fish. I didn't just swallow all these yarns 

 at first, but as they— the boys, not the yarns— were a 

 pretty reliable crowd on general principles, and I had 

 read E. Hough's experience of bass fishing somewhere in 

 Wisconsin, I concluded to go and see for myself. And I 

 saw. Now, if any of the readers of this paper should 

 happen to be in that section on a fishing trip next season, 

 and should notice that most of the large bass are gone, 

 and that the others are scattered and few in number, 

 they will probably try to lay all the blame on us as hav- 

 ing been tliere before them. But I don't want any one 

 to get any such impression, for I should be very sorry to 

 be called a "bass hog" or anything of that sort. I know 

 1 should from the fact that one of our party came mighty 

 near saying something of the sort about me while we 

 were in camp, and it "rankles in my bosom" yet. It was 

 just after breakfast and we had fish too, I remember: 

 possibly something occurred during the meal to bring 

 the subject to his mind. I don't know now whether it 

 was the cook or the "Deacon" who said it, but it was one 

 of them. To tell the truth, I don't think we went fishing 

 more than a dozen or fifteen times while we were there, 

 and we had plenty of bass to eat— once anyhow. It is 

 barely possible that something was wrong somewhere, in 

 fact I know there was, but whether it was the fault of 

 the raft, the water, the bait or the bass I am not going to 

 attempt to state. 



The particular locality referred to is about fifteen miles 

 from the town of Florence, in Florence county, Wiscon- 

 sin. This region is heavily timbered with maple, birch 

 and other hard woods interspersed with pine, hemlock, 

 cedar, balsam, etc. The water supply is furnished by 

 several small lakes of clear cold water, and the Pine 

 River also winds its crooked way through these almost 

 virgin forests. This region is a fairly good one for sport- 

 ing purposes; I say fairly good, for that is the best that 

 can be said of it at present. What it might have been or 

 what it might even now be made, is another thing en- 

 tirely. The trouble is not with the country itself, but 

 with the inhabitants thereof. The people of the town 

 of Florence as a rule seem to regard every sportsman 

 from a distance as a proper person to be swindled by 

 them in the purchase of such supplies as he is unfortun- 

 ate enough to require; and that he ia probably in their 

 section bent on violating the game laws and slaughtering 

 all the deer in the country, consequently the game warden 

 must keep his eye on him or soon there will be nothing 

 left for the poor down-trodden Florentine, but to starve 

 or go to work. Even the solitary newspaper published 

 in the town sets up a howl and mourns the constant 

 yearly decrease of game, at the same time laying all the 

 blame on the hunters from abroad. Now the editor of 

 that paper knows as well as any man in that section that 

 hunters from a distance are there during the open season 

 only; that they as a rule shoot or fish in a lawful manner, 

 and that not one deer is killed by outsiders, where dozens 

 are slain by residents. 



The game laws are a dead letter there, so far as the 

 residents are concerned ; but look out, my friend from 

 anotherState, don't have a headlight among your camp 

 duffle or a bird dog in your company; if you do the 

 warden will be very likely to introduce you to the 

 county judge, who is also justice of the peace, and who 

 will likely mete out to you the fullest measure of legal 

 punishment possible. No use kicking about technical 

 irregularities in testimony for the State, in such cases, 

 everything "goes" in that region. I was told while in the 

 woods, by reliable people too, that the judge whose term 

 expired last December, was guilty of more violations of 

 the game laws than any other man in town, that he was 

 well-known to have killed deer in June, and yet he was 

 not molested. Then in the face of all this he had the 

 gall to post notices in a couple of clearings over which he 

 assumed control away out where we camped, fifteen 

 miles from town, forbidding any hunting. I hardly 

 think they served his purpose, however. The fact of the 

 matter is, every one who lives in that region hunts and 

 fishes when and how hepleases. "Any way to git 'em," 

 is the way they put it. If you talk with a resident 

 there on the hunting question, he is pretty sure to 

 tell you about shooting deer with the aid of a headlight, 

 but he will hardly advise you to do the same if you 

 come from a distance, ana he is your friend, for he 

 knows mighty well that the warden or some other fel- 

 low is "laying for you," waiting for you to do just that 

 thing. One man who lived about six miles south of 

 our camp, told us that headlights were so thick at night 

 in Mb neighborhood, that he was afraid to be out after 

 dark. In the summer when deer resort to the water, the 

 night-hunter gets in his work with deadly effect, and 

 this goes on at all times when practicable. 



Of course this has nothing to do with the decrease of 

 the deer, oh, no; it is the hunter from another State, who 

 shoots only in a lawful way and during the open season, 

 that is cutting off the deer supply. The man from town 

 who goes out in the summer and kills the does by the 

 fight of dark lanterns, leaving the fawns to shift for them- 

 selves, is likely a benefactor, judged from a Florentine 

 standpoint. And likewise it is the angler from other 

 parts, who, with rod and reel, is playing havoc and work- 

 iitg the destruction of the bass and trout. Of course it is. 

 The miner from the iron mines and the gentleman from 

 town, with their packages of dynamite, have nothing to 

 do with, deal ing the lakes and streams of fish. Certainly 

 not. Such a theory would be untenable. 



It rather strikes me that the residents of Florence, and 

 likewise of many other towns similarly located, would 



