The Extermination of the American BisonHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
The Extermination of the American Bison
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
American bison; Wildlife conservation -- United States -- Sources
On the third day two young buck antelopes were shot at the Red Buttes.
One had already commenced to shed his hair, but the other had not quite
reached that point. We prepared the skin of the first specimen and the
skeleton of the other. This was the only good antelope skin we obtained
in the spring, those of all the other specimens taken being quite
worthless on account of the looseness of the hair. During the latter
part of May, and from that time on until the long winter hair is
completely shed, it falls off in handfuls at the slightest pressure,
leaving the skin clad only with a thin growth of new, mouse-colored hair
an eighth of an inch long.
After reaching Little Dry Creek and hunting through the country on the
west side of it nearly to its confluence with the Big Dry we turned
southwest, and finally went into permanent camp on Phillips Creek, 8
miles above the =LU=-bar ranch and 4 miles from the Little Dry. At that
point we were about 80 miles from Miles City.
From information furnished us by Mr. Phillips and the cowboys in his
employ, we were assured that about thirty-five head of buffalo ranged in
the bad lands between Phillips Creek and the Musselshell River and south
of the Big Dry. This tract of country was about 40 miles long from east
to west by 25 miles wide, and therefore of about 1,000 square miles in
area. Excepting two temporary cowboy camps it was totally uninhabited by
man, treeless, without any running streams, save in winter and spring,
and was mostly very hilly and broken.
In this desolate and inhospitable country the thirty-five buffaloes
alluded to had been seen, first on Sand Creek, then at the head of the
Big Porcupine, again near the Musselshell, and latest near the head of
the Little Dry. As these points were all from 15 to 30 miles distant
from each other, the difficulty of finding such a small herd becomes
apparent.
Although Phillips Creek was really the eastern boundary of the buffalo
country, it was impossible for a six-mule wagon to proceed beyond it, at
least at that point. Having established a permanent camp, the Government
wagon and its escort returned to Fort Keogh, and we proceeded to hunt
through the country between Sand Creek and the Little Dry. The absence
of nearly all the cowboys on the spring round-up, which began May 20,
threatened to be a serious drawback to us, as we greatly needed the
services of a man who was acquainted with the country. We had with us as
a scout and guide a Cheyenne Indian, named Dog, but it soon became
apparent that he knew no more about the country than we did.
Fortunately, however, we succeeded in occasionally securing the services
of a cowboy, which was of great advantage to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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