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
Under the circumstances, this was the most brilliant piece of work of
the entire hunt. As the four cows dashed past the hunters at the Buffalo
Buttes, heading for the High Divide, fully 20 miles distant, McNaney
killed one cow, and two others went off wounded. Of course the cowboys
gave chase. About 12 miles from the starting-point one of the wounded
cows left her companions, was headed off by Boyd, and killed. About 6
miles beyond that one, McNaney overhauled the third cow and killed her,
but the fourth one got away for a short time. While McNaney skinned the
third cow and dressed the carcass to preserve the meat, Boyd took their
now thoroughly exhausted horses to camp and procured fresh mounts. On
returning to McNaney they set out in pursuit of the fourth cow, chased
her across the High Divide, within a mile or so of our camp, and into
the ravines on the northern slope, where she was killed. She met her
death nearly if not quite 25 miles from the spot where the first one
fell.
The death of these four cows brought our number of buffaloes up to
eighteen, and made us think about the possibilities of getting thirty.
As we were proceeding to the Buffalo Buttes on the day after the "kill"
to gather in the spoil, Mr. Brown and I taking charge of the wagon,
Messrs. McNaney and Boyd went ahead in order to hunt. When within about
5 miles of the Buttes we came unexpectedly upon our companions, down in
a hollow, busily engaged in skinning another old cow, which they had
discovered traveling across the bad grounds, waylaid, and killed.
We camped that night on our old ground at the Buffalo Buttes, and
although we all desired to remain a day or two and hunt for more
buffalo, the peculiar appearance of the sky in the northwest, and the
condition of the atmosphere, warned us that a change of weather was
imminent. Accordingly, the following morning we decided without
hesitation that it was best to get back to camp that day, and it soon
proved very fortunate for us that we so decided.
Feeling that by reason of my work on the specimens I had been deprived
of a fair share of the chase, I arranged for Mr. Boyd to accompany the
wagon on the return trip, that I might hunt through the bad lands west
of the Buffalo Buttes, which I felt must contain some buffalo. Mr.
Russell went northeast and Mr. McNaney accompanied me. About 4 miles
from our late camp we came suddenly upon a fine old solitary bull,
feeding in a hollow between two high and precipitous ridges. After a
short but sharp chase I succeeded in getting a fair shot at him, and
killed him with a ball which broke his left humerus and passed into his
lungs. He was the only large bull killed on the entire trip by a single
shot. He proved to be a very fine specimen, measuring 5 feet 6 inches in
height at the shoulders. The wagon was overtaken and called back to get
the skin, and while it was coming I took a complete series of
measurements and sketches of him as he lay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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