The slaughter and annihilation of the buffalo is the most atrocious
act ever classed under the head of sport. A few years ago, while
traveling over the Great Northern Railway, I saw at different stations
ricks of bones from a quarter to a third of a mile long, piled up as
high as the tops of the cars, awaiting shipment. I asked one of the
experienced and reliable railway officials of the traffic, and he
informed me that "Not less than 26,000 car loads of buffalo bones had
been shipped over the Great Northern Railroad to the bone factories;
and not one in a thousand of the remains had ever been touched." The
weight of a full-sized buffalo's bones is about sixty pounds. The
traffic is still enormous along these northern lines. If the Indian
had any sentiment it would likely be called out as he wanders over the
plains and gathers up the dry bones of these well-nigh extinct wild
herds, that fed and clothed his tribe through so many generations.
I have seen beautiful horses, but never saw any half so handsome as
the wild horses upon the plains. The tame horse, however well groomed,
is despoiled of his grandeur. He compares with his wild brother as the
plebeian compares with royalty. I saw a beautiful race between two
Greasers who were chasing a herd of wild horses. They were running
parallel with the road I was traveling, and I spurred up and ran by
their side some four hundred yards distant, and had a chance to study
them for many miles.
I afterward saw a handsome stallion that had just been caught. He was
tied and in a corral, but if one approached he would jump at him and
strike and kick as savagely as possible. His back showed saddle marks,
which proved that he had not always been the wild savage he had then
become. The mountains and hills where the wild horses were then most
numerous were covered with wild oats, which gave the country the
appearance of large cultivation.
Among the interesting facts which the traveler on the great plains
learns, and often to his discomfort, is the deception as to distance.
He sees something of interest and resolves "it is but two miles away,"
but the chances are that it will prove to be eight or ten miles. The
country is made up of great waves. Looking off you see the top of a
wave, and when you get there a valley that you did not see, stretches
away for miles.
We always tried to treat our Indian guests courteously, but they were
often voted a nuisance. While cooking our supper they would often form
a circle, twenty or thirty of them sitting on the ground, and they
looked so longingly at the bread and ham and coffee, that it almost
took one's appetite away. We could only afford to give the squaws what
was left. To fill up such a crowd would have soon ended our stock of
supplies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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