272 
FOREST AND STREAM 
upon which rested half a dozen Winchester six¬ 
teen-shooters, while from other pegs depended 
the revolver belts of the men, when they were 
in the living room to eat or rest. These belts 
were provided with sheaths for two big revolvers, 
usually Colts army style of about forty-five cali¬ 
ber. A strap was frequently attached to the belt, 
and passed over the shoulder to help sustain the 
weight of the formidable armament. All stage 
companies’ employes seemed to take much pride 
in these warlike equipments, both belt and sheath 
being frequently decorated with brass-headed 
tacks and copper rivets arranged in fanciful pat¬ 
terns, and always brightly polished. 
Outside the living room the revolver belt was 
never left off. A man would get up from the 
table or from his seat near the fire to feed or 
water the horses, or attend to any outside mat¬ 
ter, and the first thing would be to go to his peg, 
take down and buckle on his belt, and then go 
to his work, just as a man puts on his hat and 
gloves when he goes out into the cold. 
And here I will remark that the word “gun - ’ 
as applied to a pistol I never heard used until 
within the last twenty-five or thirty years. At the 
time of which I am writing a “gun” was a fire¬ 
arm you brought up to your shoulder in order to 
discharge, while the smaller arms were always 
spoken of by some term which, to a certain ex¬ 
tent, defined them. A “revolver” was so spoken 
of, or more familiarly as a “Colt” or a “pistol,” 
while a short, large-bore singular or double- 
barreled pocket pistol was familiarly spoken of as 
a “Derringer,” from the first maker of them. 
On a line with the main station house, • and 
thirty or forty feet away was the stable, substan¬ 
tially built of logs, with a low roof of poles cov¬ 
ered with dried grass, and a coating of mud on 
the top of that. There was room in the stable 
for fifteen or twenty horses, but usually they 
ranged in a little valley below the station, where 
there was good pasturage, while a willow-fringed 
brook meandering through it furnished water, so 
that the stock had no temptation to stray away, 
and could always be seen from headquarters. Be¬ 
tween the stables and the main building was the 
blacksmith shop, an indispensable feature as can 
be easily understood. There must be a black¬ 
smith and horseshoer among the force at each 
station, as work in that line might be urgently 
needed at any moment. 
At many if not all the stations there was also 
a telegraph operator. Most of these were young 
men of about my own age, and were of course 
superior in education to most of the common 
hands, although all classes of people were among 
the stage company’s employes. 
I often wondered at these young fellows, ac¬ 
cepting such a job as operator at a stage station, 
for they could get quite as good pay within the 
bounds of civilization as here; there was but one 
advantage, their earnings were sure to accumu¬ 
late, for they could not spend money. They were 
required ordinarily to do their share of what¬ 
ever work was to be done; but this must have 
been a positive relief from what would otherwise 
have been complete stagnation, as there were 
only occasional telegraphic messages to be sent 
or received. It was not safe in most cases to go 
far from the station in quest of sport, as any 
roving band of young Indians who had been un¬ 
fortunate in .a raid, and were in a bad humor, 
might entertain the idea that the scalp of a stage 
company employe would do as well as any other 
to give some eclat to their not exactly triumphant 
return to their lodges. 
Three or four men usually constituted the force 
at each station, but often there were more. 
Until this stop I had only had a glimpse of 
my fellow travelers- 
As mentioned previously, they were four in 
number; all, as I soon found, were from west of 
the Rocky Mountains, but no one except myself 
from California. One, indeed, was a Mormon 
from Salt Lake City. At least the rest of us 
assumed he was a Mormon, from the fact that he 
was from that city, where, at the time, there were 
few Gentiles; and from the further fact that he 
never mentioned the subject of Mormonism. We 
of course said nothing at any time to give the 
conversation such a turn when we found he 
avoided it. He was an agreeable, courteous man, 
joining readily in the conversation, and always 
willing to contribute his share of anecdote or dis¬ 
cussion in order to interest the company. 
Mr. H., a tall, fine-looking man, with a short 
brown beard, was from Montana* and had par¬ 
ticipated in some stirring scenes there, while 
Mr. T. was a prospector from Idaho, about whom 
I remember little except some blood-curdling ac¬ 
counts of the ferocity shown by the Indians 
toward the Chinese, whenever any of that race 
were unfortunate enough to fall into their hands. 
For no known reason they seemed to abhor a 
Chinaman far more than a white man, although 
the question of unfair competition could not in 
this case have been an aggravating cause 
Mr. R., whom I mentioned as having gotten 
into the stage at the start from the hotel in 
Cheyenne where I mounted to the box seat, was 
a character with whom I afterward became 
well acquainted while in the mines of eastern 
(Continued on page 295.) 
The Future of the American Bison 
its Being Secure 
1912 
1,288 
1,144 
2,954 2,432 
499 475 
1913 
1,651 
1,303 
The future of the American Bison seems se¬ 
cure. This noble beast will never again be a 
game animal, first, because it will require years 
to breed him back in large numbers, and sec¬ 
ondly, because the vast ranges necessary for his 
existence in a wild state are no longer available. 
Thanks are due to the American Bison Society 
that the Buffalo is not now actually extinct. The 
report of the society for the past year, now at 
hand, says: 
“When this society was organized seven 
years ago it was frankly acknowledged among 
those who had watched the gradual disappear¬ 
ance of the buffaloes in the west that unless 
something heroic be done and done soon the 
buffalo would soon become an extinct animal. 
There were then known to exist in North 
America only 1,100 pure blooded buffaloes, and 
the number was rapidly decreasing. The in¬ 
crease during the past seven years is more 
than 300 per cent.” 
An official census shows that there were in 
the United States and Canada on Jan. 1, last, 
3,788 American bison of pure blood. The dis¬ 
tribution in number, compared with several 
previous years was as follows: 
3,788 3,453 2,907 
Of the 576 wild bison reported, about 450 were 
located in Athabasca. These are the wood buf¬ 
faloes. Maxwell Graham, Chief of the Ani¬ 
mal and Zoological Division reports as follows 
regarding them: 
“In regard to the wild, so-called wood bison 
in the vicinity of Fort Smith, no further in¬ 
formation than that contained in the previous 
report need here be mentioned, with the excep¬ 
tion that the latest reports show that a larger 
number of calves have been successfully raised 
among them than for some time previously, ow¬ 
ing to the fact that the large timber wolves of 
the North have during the past year devoted 
their energies mostly to the more easily preyed 
upon caribou, which in large numbers have 
lately frequented the country contiguous to the 
wild bison’s range. 
“However a report of May 15th last from 
the Department’s agent at Fort Smith, states 
that on March 26th preceding portions of the 
carcass of a two-year-old bison were found 
which had newly been killed by five timber 
wolves. 
“The question of raising the bounty on these 
wolves from $20.00 .to $40.00 per wolf pelt is 
now being considered, and it is hoped that 
shortly a comprehensive scheme will be carried 
out by which these wild bison, now known to be 
the finest species of their race, will be still 
further safeguarded, as it is to them that we 
must ultimately look for future necessary in¬ 
fusion of unrelated blood among the national 
herds.” 
Canada has been very enterprising in looking 
after the imported herds in the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains Park and elsewhere, and these herds are 
increasing rapidly. 
So far as the United States is concerned, the 
distribution of the bison is becoming general, 
and several states are aiding in the work of 
perpetuating the species. 
Although nothing very definite in establish- 
The American Bison Society Has Made 
_ . . l 9H 
Captive in United States. 1,637 
Captive in Canada .1,575 
Captive in North America 3,212 
Wild in North America. 576 
All pure blood bison in 
North America 
