102 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— HOOFED ANIMALS 
entire continent of North America, and its num- 
bers far exceeded those of any other large mam- 
mal of recent times. 
Not only did it inhabit the plains of the West, 
but also the hilly hard-wood forests of the Ap- 
palachian region, the northern plains of Mexico, 
the “Great American Desert,” the Rocky Moun- 
tain parks on the continental divide to an eleva- 
tion of 11,000 feet, and the bleak and barren 
plains of western Canada, up to the land of the 
musk-ox. From north to south it ranged 3,600 
miles, and from east to west about 2,000 miles. 
The centre of abundance of the Buffalo was 
the Great Plains lying between the Rocky Moun- 
tains and the Mississippi valley. When the 
herds assembled there, they covered the earth 
seemingly as with one vast, brown buffalo-robe. 
It is safe to say that no man ever saw in one 
day a greater panorama of animal life than that 
unrolled before Colonel R. I. Dodge, in May, 
1871, when he drove for twenty-five miles along 
the Arkansas River, through an unbroken herd 
of Buffaloes. By my calculation, he actually saw 
on that memorable day nearly half a million 
head. It was the great southern herd, on its 
annual spring migration northward, and it must 
have contained a total of about three and one- 
half million animals. At that date, the northern 
herd contained about one and one-lialf millions. 
In those days, mighty hosts of Buffaloes fre- 
quently stopped or derailed railway trains, 
and obstructed the progress of boats on the Mis- 
souri and Yellowstone rivers. 
In 1869, the general herd was divided, by the 
completion of the Union Pacific Railway, into 
a “northern herd” and “southern herd.” The 
latter was savagely attacked by hide hunters in 
the autumn of 1871, and by 1875, with the ex- 
ception of three very small bunches, it had 
been annihilated. 
In 1880, the completion of the Northern Pacific 
Railway led to a grand attack upon the northern 
herd. In October, 1883, the last thousand head 
were killed in southwestern Dakota, by Sitting 
Bull and about a thousand Indians from the 
Standing Rock agency, leaving only the Yellow- 
stone Park bunch of two hundred head, a band 
of forty in Custer County, Montana, and the 
Great Slave Lake herd of about five hundred 
head. 
The largest Buffalo ever measured by a nat- 
uralist is the old bull which was shot (by the 
author) on December 6, 1886, in Montana, and 
which now stands as the most prominent figure 
in the mounted group in the United States Na- 
tional Museum. A very good picture of him 
adorns the ten-dollar bill of our national currency. 
His dimensions in the flesh were as follows: 
Ft. In. 
Height at shoulders 5 8 
Length of head and body, to root of 
"tail 10 2 
Depth of chest 3 10 
Girth, behind forelegs 8 4 
Circumference of muzzle, behind nos- 
trils 2 2 
Length of tail vertebrae 1 3 
Length of hair on shoulders 6£ 
“ “ “ “ forehead 1 4 
“ “ chin beard 11^ 
Estimated weight 2,100 pounds. 
The shoulder height of wild Buffaloes of vari- 
ous ages, and both sexes, as taken by me on the 
Montana buffalo range, are as follows: 
Ft. In. 
Male calf, 4 months old 2 8 
“ one year old 3 5 
“ two years old 4 2 
“ five years old (average size) 5 6 
Female, three years old 4 5 
“ eight years old 4 10 
The Buffalo begins to shed its faded and weath- 
er-beaten winter coat of hair in March, and dur- 
ing April, May and June it presents a forlorn ap- 
pearance. The old hair hangs to the body like 
fluttering rags, and at last, when it finally dis- 
appears, the body is almost bare. At this time 
the flies are very troublesome. By October, 
the new coat is of good length and color, and in 
November and December, it is at its finest. The 
animal is then warmly clad for the worst storms 
of winter, and the shaggy head is so well pro- 
tected that the animal faces all storms instead 
of drifting before them. A bull Buffalo in per- 
fect pelage is an animal of really majestic pres- 
ence, and is far more imposing in appearance 
than many animals of larger bulk, but less hair. 
The calves are born in May and June, and at 
first are of a brick-red color. This coat is shed 
in October, except in calves born late in the sea- 
son. 
The flesh of the Buffalo so closely resembles 
domestic beef of the same age and quality that it 
