THE AMKRICAN HISON OR lUlFFAT.O. 



453 



around these springs, desolated as by a ravaging enemy and the 

 hills reduced to plains by the pawing of their feet. I have heard 

 a hunter assert he saw above one thousand buffaloes at Blue Licks 

 at once." Lewis and Clark estimated that they saw twelve thou- 

 sand at one time in South Dakota, and Colonel Dodge estimated that 

 he saw half a million during a day's ride on the western plains. 



In Indiana they were not so numerous as west of the Missis- 

 sippi but were doubtless as abundant as in Kentucky. Indeed, there 

 seems to have been a regular migration from the prairies of the 

 West across Indiana, to the salt licks and blue grass meadows of 

 Kentucky. One of their trails crossed the Wabash River nine miles 

 south of Vincennes. 



The year in which wild bison were last seen in the State is un- 

 certain. Hornaday places the date of their disappearance at 1810, 

 but this is possibly a few years too early. The Prince of Wied, who 

 spent the winter of 1832-33 at New Harmony, states that they were 

 still abundant on the Illinois prairies a few days' journey from 

 there. Mr. E. J. Chansler informs me that a Mr. Thompson, who 

 made the brick for Governor Harrison 's mansion at Vincennes, saw 

 buffalo near there in 1808. Mr. Chansler says also that the father 

 of John G. Bailey came to Vincennes in 1800, when the son was 

 six years old and that the latter could have killed buffalo just east 

 of the town after he became old enough to hunt. This would place 

 the date of their disappearance from the vicinity as late as 1808 or 

 1810. At that date the upper Wabash Valley and the prairies be- 

 yond had scarcely been settled at all and it is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that bison existed there somewhat later than in the vicinity of 

 the earliest settlements. 



However, these magnificent game animals disappeared very 

 shortly after the coming of the white settlers and long before the 

 country became thickly settled. Many of the animals, even in that 

 early day, were wantonly slaughtered for their hides. But the fact 

 that immense herds migrated between the western prairies and the 

 licks of Kentucky and southern Indiana is one reason for thinking 

 that they may have been driven out of this State rather than en- 

 tirely killed off. Whatever the exact fate of the bisons of Indiana, 

 the almost complete extermination of the race must always be looked 

 upon with regret. 



However, from a biological standpoint, nothing but their de- 

 struction could have been expected. Although not usually placed 

 very high in the scale among mammalian animals, the bison was in 

 a way, highly specialized. The large size of the animals, their gre- 



