EXISTING KINDS OF WILD CATTLE 197 
one time on the side of the lamenters, have, in some 
instances at any rate, veered round to the opposite 
view. 
For example, that great hunter of the American 
bison (or buffalo, as it was locally called), Colonel 
William Cody, who has been quoted as authority for 
the statement that the extermination of the species 
from the prairies of the West was a wicked and 
pitiful waste of the God-given resources of the country, 
subsequently wrote in a popular American journal as 
follows : — 
" As I look back upon it 1 see now that it was a 
sharp, quick way of ridding the plains of a cumbrance 
that had to give place to a wiser use of these fine 
grass-lands. It was another instance of civilisation 
getting what it wanted and never minding the cost. 
Civilisation wanted the West, but it had no use for 
the Indian or the buffalo it found in possession of the 
West. The Indian and the buffalo had to go before 
the relentless march of the white man. 
" W^e could not make a useful citizen of the Indian, 
nor could we run our brand on the buffalo. Extra- 
vagant as may seem the slaughter, the country is as 
much better for it as cities are better than tepees, and 
cattle and sheep are better than buffalo. A good 
many men living right here in Denver to-day can 
remember riding for days through mighty herds of 
buffalo too contemptuous of us in their numbers to 
mind the crack of the rifle in the least. At night we 
had to place guards around the camps to prevent 
these great herds from trampling us out of existence. 
We found fresh herds in almost every direction 
although each herd stayed largely on its own range. 
" They chose the uplands for their ranges, where 
