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
In the issue of Forest and Stream of June 14, 1888, Dr. R. W. Shufeldt,
in an article entitled "The American Buffalo," relates a very
interesting experience with buffaloes which were pronounced to be of the
"mountain" variety, and his observations on the animals are well worth
reproducing here. The animals (eight in number) were encountered on the
northern slope of the Big Horn Mountains, in the autumn of 1877. "We
came upon them during a fearful blizzard of heavy hail, during which our
animals could scarcely retain their feet. In fact, the packer's mule
absolutely lay down on the ground rather than risk being blown down the
mountain side, and my own horse, totally unable to face such a violent
blow and the pelting hail (the stones being as large as big marbles),
positively stood stock-still, facing an old buffalo bull that was not
more than 25 feet in front of me. * * * Strange to say, this fearful
gust did not last more than ten minutes, when it stopped as suddenly as
it had commenced, and I deliberately killed my old buffalo at one shot,
just where he stood, and, separating two other bulls from the rest,
charged them down a rugged ravine. They passed over this and into
another one, but with less precipitous sides and no trees in the way,
and when I was on top of the intervening ridge I noticed that the
largest bull had halted in the bottom. Checking my horse, an excellent
buffalo hunter, I fired down at him without dismounting. The ball merely
barked his shoulder, and to my infinite surprise he turned and charged
me up the hill. * * * Stepping to one side of my horse, with the
charging and infuriated bull not 10 feet to my front, I fired upon him,
and the heavy ball took him square in the chest, bringing him to his
knees, with a gush of scarlet blood from his mouth and nostrils. * * *
"Upon examining the specimen, I found it to be an old bull, apparently
smaller and very much blacker than the ones I had seen killed on the
plains only a day or so before. Then I examined the first one I had
shot, as well as others which were killed by the packer from the same
bunch, and I came to the conclusion that they were typical
representatives of the variety known as the 'mountain buffalo,' a form
much more active in movement, of slighter limbs, blacker, and far more
dangerous to attack. My opinion in the premises remains unaltered
to-day. In all this I may be mistaken, but it was also the opinion held
by the old buffalo hunter who accompanied me, and who at once remarked
when he saw them that they were 'mountain buffalo,' and not the plains
variety. * * *
"These specimens were not actually measured by me in either case, and
their being considered smaller only rested upon my judging them by my
eye. But they were of a softer pelage, black, lighter in limb, and when
discovered were in the timber, on the side of the Big Horn Mountains."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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