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
It was therefore resolved to leave the buffaloes entirely unmolested
until autumn, and then, when the robes would be in the finest condition,
return for a hunt on a liberal scale. Accordingly, it was decided to
return to Washington without delay, and a courier was dispatched with a
request for transportation to carry our party back to Fort Keogh.
While awaiting the arrival of the wagons, a cowboy in the employ of the
Phillips Land and Cattle Company killed a solitary bull buffalo about 15
miles west of our camp, near Sand Creek. This animal had completely shed
the hair on his body and hind quarters. In addition to the preservation
of his entire skeleton, we prepared the skin also, as an example of the
condition of the buffalo immediately after shedding.
On June 6 the teams from Fort Keogh arrived, and we immediately returned
to Miles City, taking with us our live buffalo calf, two fresh buffalo
skeletons, three bleached skeletons, seven skulls, one skin entire, and
one head skin, in addition to a miscellaneous collection of skins and
skeletons of smaller mammals and birds. On reaching Miles City we
hastily packed and shipped our collection, and, taking the calf with us,
returned at once to Washington.
II. THE HUNT.
On September 24 I arrived at Miles City a second time, fully equipped
for a protracted hunt for buffalo; this time accompanied only by W.
Harvey Brown, a student of the University of Kansas, as field assistant,
having previously engaged three cowboys as guides and hunters--Irwin
Boyd, James McNaney, and L. S. Russell. Messrs. Boyd and Russell were in
Miles City awaiting my arrival, and Mr. McNaney joined us in the field a
few days later. Mr. Boyd acted as my foreman during the entire hunt, a
position which he filled to my entire satisfaction.
Thanks to the energy and good-will of the officers at Fort Keogh, of
which Lieutenant-Colonel Cochran was then in command, our
transportation, camp equipage, and stores were furnished without an
hour's delay. We purchased two months' supplies of commissary stores, a
team, and two saddle-horses, and hired three more horses, a light wagon,
and a set of double harness. Each of the cowboys furnished one horse; so
that in our outfit we had ten head, a team, and two good saddle-horses
for each hunter. The worst feature of the whole question of subsistence
was the absolute necessity of hauling a supply of grain from Miles City
into the heart of the buffalo country for our ten horses. For such work
as they had to encounter it was necessary to feed them constantly and
liberally with oats in order to keep them in condition to do their work.
We took with us 2,000 pounds of oats, and by the beginning of November
as much more had to be hauled up to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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