William T. Hornaday - The Extermination Of The American Bison
W >>
William T. Hornaday >> The Extermination Of The American Bison
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22 UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.
* * * * *
THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON.
BY
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY,
_Superintendent of the National Zoological Park._
* * * * *
From the Report of the National Museum, 1886-'87, pages 369-548, and
plates I-XXII.
* * * * *
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
1889.
[Illustration: GROUP OF AMERICAN BISONS IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM.
Collected and mounted by W. T. Hornaday.]
CONTENTS.
PREFATORY NOTE
PART I.--THE LIFE HISTORY OF THE BISON
I. Discovery of the species
II. Geographical distribution
III. Abundance
IV. Character of the species
1. The buffalo's rank amongst ruminants
2. Change of form in captivity
3. Mounted specimens in museums
4. The calf
5. The yearling
6. The spike bull
7. The adult bull
8. The cow in the third year
9. The adult cow
10. The "Wood" or "Mountain Buffalo"
11. The shedding of the winter pelage
V. Habits of the buffalo
VI. The food of the buffalo
VII. Mental capacity and disposition of the buffalo
VIII. Value to mankind
IX. Economic value of the bison to Western
cattle-growers
1. The bison in captivity and domestication
2. Need of an improvement in range cattle
3. Character of the buffalo-domestic hybrid
4. The bison as a beast of burden
5. List of bison herds and individuals
in captivity
PART II.--THE EXTERMINATION
I. Causes of the extermination
II. Methods of slaughter
1. The "still hunt"
2. The chase on horseback
3. Impounding
4. The surround
5. Decoying and driving
6. Hunting on snow-shoes
III. Progress of the extermination
A. The period of desultory destruction
B. The period of systematic slaughter
1. The Red River half-breeds
2. The country of the Sioux
3. Western railways, and their part
in the extermination of the buffalo
4. The division of the universal herd
5. The destruction of the southern herd
6. Statistics of the slaughter
7. The destruction of the northern herd
IV. Legislation to prevent useless slaughter
V. Completeness of the wild buffalo's extirpation
VI. Effects of the disappearance of the bison
VII. Preservation of the species from absolute extinction
PART III.--THE SMITHSONIAN EXPEDITION FOR SPECIMENS
I. The exploration for specimens
II. The hunt
III. The mounted group in the National Museum
INDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Group of buffaloes in the National Museum
Head of bull buffalo
Slaughter of buffalo on Kansas Pacific Railroad
Buffalo cow, calf, and yearling
Spike bull
Bull buffalo
Bull buffalo, rear view
The development of the buffalo's horns
A dead bull
Buffalo skinners at work
Five minutes' work
Scene on the northern buffalo range
Half-breed calf
Half-breed buffalo (domestic) cow
Young half-breed bull
The still-hunt
The chase on horseback
Cree Indians impounding buffalo
The surround
Indians on snow-shoes hunting buffaloes
Where the millions have gone
Trophies of the hunt
MAPS.
Sketch map of the hunt for buffalo
Map illustrating the extermination of the American bison
PREFATORY NOTE.
It is hoped that the following historical account of the discovery,
partial utilization, and almost complete extermination of the great
American bison may serve to cause the public to fully realize the folly
of allowing all our most valuable and interesting American mammals to be
wantonly destroyed in the same manner. The wild buffalo is practically
gone forever, and in a few more years, when the whitened bones of the
last bleaching skeleton shall have been picked up and shipped East for
commercial uses, nothing will remain of him save his old, well-worn
trails along the water-courses, a few museum specimens, and regret for
his fate. If his untimely end fails even to point a moral that shall
benefit the surviving species of mammals _which are now being
slaughtered in like manner_, it will be sad indeed.
Although _Bison americanus_ is a true bison, according to scientific
classification, and not a buffalo, the fact that more than sixty
millions of people in this country unite in calling him a "buffalo," and
know him by no other name, renders it quite unnecessary for me to
apologize for following, in part, a harmless custom which has now become
so universal that all the naturalists in the world could not change it
if they would.
W. T. H.
THE EXTERMINATION OF THE AMERICAN BISON,
By WILLIAM T. HORNADAY,
_Superintendent of the National Zoological Park._
PART I.--LIFE HISTORY OF THE BISON.
I. DISCOVERY OF THE SPECIES.
The discovery of the American bison, as first made by Europeans,
occurred in the menagerie of a heathen king.
In the year 1521, when Cortez reached Anahuac, the American bison was
seen for the first time by civilized Europeans, if we may be permitted
to thus characterize the horde of blood thirsty plunder seekers who
fought their way to the Aztec capital. With a degree of enterprise that
marked him as an enlightened monarch, Montezuma maintained, for the
instruction of his people, a well-appointed menagerie, of which the
historian De Solis wrote as follows (1724):
"In the second Square of the same House were the Wild Beasts, which were
either presents to Montezuma, or taken by his Hunters, in strong Cages
of Timber, rang'd in good Order, and under Cover: Lions, Tygers, Bears,
and all others of the savage Kind which New-Spain produced; among which
the greatest Rarity was the Mexican Bull; a wonderful composition of
divers Animals. It has crooked Shoulders, with a Bunch on its Back like
a Camel; its Flanks dry, its Tail large, and its Neck cover'd with Hair
like a Lion. It is cloven footed, its Head armed like that of a Bull,
which it resembles in Fierceness, with no less strength and Agility."
Thus was the first seen buffalo described. The nearest locality from
whence it could have come was the State of Coahuila, in northern Mexico,
between 400 and 500 miles away, and at that time vehicles were unknown
to the Aztecs. But for the destruction of the whole mass of the written
literature of the Aztecs by the priests of the Spanish Conquest, we
might now be reveling in historical accounts of the bison which would
make the oldest of our present records seem of comparatively recent
date.
Nine years after the event referred to above, or in 1530, another
Spanish explorer, Alvar Nuņez Cabeza, afterwards called Cabeza de
Vaca--or, in other words "Cattle Cabeza," the prototype of our own
distinguished "Buffalo Bill"--was wrecked on the Gulf coast, west of
the delta of the Mississippi, from whence he wandered westward through
what is now the State of Texas. In southeastern Texas he discovered the
American bison on his native heath. So far as can be ascertained, this
was the earliest discovery of the bison in a wild state, and the
description of the species as recorded by the explorer is of historical
interest. It is brief and superficial. The unfortunate explorer took
very little interest in animated nature, except as it contributed to the
sum of his daily food, which was then the all-important subject of his
thoughts. He almost starved. This is all he has to say:[1]
[Note 1: Davis' Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. 1869. P. 67.]
"Cattle come as far as this. I have seen them three times, and eaten of
their meat. I think they are about the size of those in Spain. They have
small horns like those of Morocco, and the hair long and flocky, like
that of the merino. Some are light brown (_pardillas_) and others black.
To my judgment the flesh is finer and sweeter than that of this country
[Spain]. The Indians make blankets of those that are not full grown, and
of the larger they make shoes and bucklers. They come as far as the
sea-coast of Florida [now Texas], and in a direction from the north, and
range over a district of more than 400 leagues. In the whole extent of
plain over which they roam, the people who live bordering upon it
descend and kill them for food, and thus a great many skins are
scattered throughout the country."
Coronado was the next explorer who penetrated the country of the
buffalo, which he accomplished from the west, by way of Arizona and New
Mexico. He crossed the southern part of the "Pan-handle" of Texas, to
the edge of what is now the Indian Territory, and returned through the
same region. It was in the year 1542 that he reached the buffalo
country, and traversed the plains that were "full of crooke-backed oxen,
as the mountaine Serena in Spaine is of sheepe." This is the description
of the animal as recorded by one of his followers, Castaņeda, and
translated by W. W. Davis:[2]
[Note 2: The Spanish Conquest of New Mexico. Davis. 1869. Pp. 206-7.]
"The first time we encountered the buffalo, all the horses took to
flight on seeing them, for they are horrible to the sight.
"They have a broad and short face, eyes two palms from each other, and
projecting in such a manner sideways that they can see a pursuer. Their
beard is like that of goats, and so long that it drags the ground when
they lower the head. They have, on the anterior portion of the body, a
frizzled hair like sheep's wool; it is very fine upon the croup, and
sleek like a lion's mane. Their horns are very short and thick, and can
scarcely be seen through the hair. They always change their hair in May,
and at this season they really resemble lions. To make it drop more
quickly, for they change it as adders do their skins, they roll among
the brush-wood which they find in the ravines.
"Their tail is very short, and terminates in a great tuft. When they run
they carry it in the air like scorpions. When quite young they are
tawny, and resemble our calves; but as age increases they change color
and form.
"Another thing which struck us was that all the old buffaloes that we
killed had the left ear cloven, while it was entire in the young; we
could never discover the reason of this.
"Their wool is so fine that handsome clothes would certainly be made of
it, but it can not be dyed for it is tawny red. We were much surprised
at sometimes meeting innumerable herds of bulls without a single cow,
and other herds of cows without bulls."
Neither De Soto, Ponce de Leon, Vasquez de Ayllon, nor Pamphilo de
Narvaez ever saw a buffalo, for the reason that all their explorations
were made south of what was then the habitat of that animal. At the time
De Soto made his great exploration from Florida northwestward to the
Mississippi and into Arkansas (1539-'41) he did indeed pass through
country in northern Mississippi and Louisiana that was afterward
inhabited by the buffalo, but at that time not one was to be found
there. Some of his soldiers, however, who were sent into the northern
part of Arkansas, reported having seen buffalo skins in the possession
of the Indians, and were told that live buffaloes were to be found 5 or
6 leagues north of their farthest point.
The earliest discovery of the bison in Eastern North America, or indeed
anywhere north of Coronado's route, was made somewhere near Washington,
District of Columbia, in 1612, by an English navigator named Samuel
Argoll,[3] and narrated as follows:
"As soon as I had unladen this corne, I set my men to the felling of
Timber, for the building of a Frigat, which I had left half finished at
Point Comfort, the 19. of March: and returned myself with the ship into
Pembrook [Potomac] River, and so discovered to the head of it, which is
about 65 leagues into the Land, and navigable for any ship. And then
marching into the Countrie, I found great store of Cattle as big as
Kine, of which the Indians that were my guides killed a couple, which we
found to be very good and wholesome meate, and are very easie to be
killed, in regard they are heavy, slow, and not so wild as other beasts
of the wildernesse."
[Note 3: Purchas: His Pilgrimes. (1625.) Vol. IV, p. 1765. "A letter of
Sir Samuel Argoll touching his Voyage to Virginia, and actions there.
Written to Master Nicholas Hawes, June, 1613."]
It is to be regretted that the narrative of the explorer affords no clew
to the precise locality of this interesting discovery, but since it is
doubtful that the mariner journeyed very far on foot from the head of
navigation of the Potomac, it seems highly probable that the first
American bison seen by Europeans, other than the Spaniards, was found
within 15 miles, or even less, of the capital of the United States, and
possibly within the District of Columbia itself.
The first meeting of the white man with the buffalo on the northern
boundary of that animal's habitat occurred in 1679, when Father
Hennepin ascended the St. Lawrence to the great lakes, and finally
penetrated the great wilderness as far as western Illinois.
The next meeting with the buffalo on the Atlantic slope was in October,
1729, by a party of surveyors under Col. William Byrd, who were engaged
in surveying the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia.
As the party journeyed up from the coast, marking the line which now
constitutes the interstate boundary, three buffaloes were seen on
Sugar-Tree Creek, but none of them were killed.
On the return journey, in November, a bull buffalo was killed on
Sugar-Tree Creek, which is in Halifax County, Virginia, within 5 miles
of Big Buffalo Creek; longitude 78° 40' W., and 155 miles from the
coast.[4] "It was found all alone, tho' Buffaloes Seldom are." The meat
is spoken of as "a Rarity," not met at all on the expedition up. The
animal was found in thick woods, which were thus feelingly described:
"The woods were thick great Part of this Day's Journey, so that we were
forced to scuffle hard to advance 7 miles, being equal in fatigue to
double that distance of Clear and Open Ground." One of the creeks which
the party crossed was christened Buffalo Creek, and "so named from the
frequent tokens we discovered of that American Behemoth."
[Note 4: Westover Manuscript. Col. William Byrd. Vol. I, p. 178.]
In October, 1733, on another surveying expedition, Colonel Byrd's party
had the good fortune to kill another buffalo near Sugar-Tree Creek,
which incident is thus described:[5]
[Note 5: Vol. II, pp. 24, 25.]
"We pursued our journey thro' uneven and perplext woods, and in the
thickest of them had the Fortune to knock down a Young Buffalo 2 years
old. Providence threw this vast animal in our way very Seasonably, just
as our provisions began to fail us. And it was the more welcome, too,
because it was change of dyet, which of all Varietys, next to that of
Bed-fellows, is the most agreeable. We had lived upon Venison and Bear
till our stomachs loath'd them almost as much as the Hebrews of old did
their Quails. Our Butchers were so unhandy at their Business that we
grew very lank before we cou'd get our Dinner. But when it came, we
found it equal in goodness to the best Beef. They made it the longer
because they kept Sucking the Water out of the Guts in imitation of the
Catauba Indians, upon the belief that it is a great Cordial, and will
even make them drunk, or at least very Gay."
A little later a solitary bull buffalo was found, _but spared_,[6] the
earliest instance of the kind on record, and which had few successors to
keep it company.
[Note 6: _Ib._, p. 28.]
II. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION.
The range of the American bison extended over about one-third of the
entire continent of North America. Starting almost at tide-water on the
Atlantic coast, it extended westward through a vast tract of dense
forest, across the Alleghany Mountain system to the prairies along the
Mississippi, and southward to the Delta of that great stream. Although
the great plains country of the West was the natural home of the
species, where it flourished most abundantly, it also wandered south
across Texas to the burning plains of northeastern Mexico, westward
across the Rocky Mountains into New Mexico, Utah, and Idaho, and
northward across a vast treeless waste to the bleak and inhospitable
shores of the Great Slave Lake itself. It is more than probable that had
the bison remained unmolested by man and uninfluenced by him, he would
eventually have crossed the Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Range and taken
up his abode in the fertile valleys of the Pacific slope.
Had the bison remained for a few more centuries in undisturbed
possession of his range, and with liberty to roam at will over the North
American continent, it is almost certain that several distinctly
recognizable varieties would have been produced. The buffalo of the hot
regions in the extreme south would have become a short-haired animal
like the gaur of India and the African buffalo. The individuals
inhabiting the extreme north, in the vicinity of Great Slave Lake, for
example, would have developed still longer hair, and taken on more of
the dense hairyness of the musk ox. In the "wood" or "mountain buffalo"
we already have a distinct foreshadowing of the changes which would have
taken place in the individuals which made their permanent residence upon
rugged mountains.
It would be an easy matter to fill a volume with facts relating to the
geographical distribution of _Bison americanus_ and the dates of its
occurrence and disappearance in the multitude of different localities
embraced within the immense area it once inhabited. The capricious
shiftings of certain sections of the great herds, whereby large areas
which for many years had been utterly unvisited by buffaloes suddenly
became overrun by them, could be followed up indefinitely, but to little
purpose. In order to avoid wearying the reader with a mass of dates and
references, the map accompanying this paper has been prepared to show at
a glance the approximate dates at which the bison finally disappeared
from the various sections of its habitat. In some cases the date given
is coincident with the death of the last buffalo known to have been
killed in a given State or Territory; in others, where records are
meager, the date given is the nearest approximation, based on existing
records. In the preparation of this map I have drawn liberally from Mr.
J. A. Allen's admirable monograph of "The American Bison," in which the
author has brought together, with great labor and invariable accuracy, a
vast amount of historical data bearing upon this subject. In this
connection I take great pleasure in acknowledging my indebtedness to
Professor Allen's work.
While it is inexpedient to include here all the facts that might be
recorded with reference to the discovery, existence, and ultimate
extinction of the bison in the various portions of its former habitat,
it is yet worth while to sketch briefly the extreme limits of its range.
In doing this, our starting point will be the Atlantic slope east of the
Alleghanies, and the reader will do well to refer to the large map.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.--There is no indisputable evidence that the bison
ever inhabited this precise locality, but it is probable that it did. In
1612 Captain Argoll sailed up the "Pembrook River" to the head of
navigation (Mr. Allen believes this was the James River, and not the
Potomac) and marched inland a few miles, where he discovered buffaloes,
some of which were killed by his Indian guides. If this river was the
Potomac, and most authorities believe that it was, the buffaloes seen by
Captain Argoll might easily have been in what is now the District of
Columbia.
Admitting the existence of a reasonable doubt as to the identity of the
Pembrook River of Captain Argoll, there is yet another bit of history
which fairly establishes the fact that in the early part of the
seventeenth century buffaloes inhabited the banks of the Potomac between
this city and the lower falls. In 1624 an English fur trader named Henry
Fleet came hither to trade with the Anacostian Indians, who then
inhabited the present site of the city of Washington, and with the
tribes of the Upper Potomac. In his journal (discovered a few years
since in the Lambeth Library, London) Fleet gave a quaint description of
the city's site as it then appeared. The following is from the
explorer's journal:
"Monday, the 25th June, we set sail for the town of Tohoga, where we
came to an anchor 2 leagues short of the falls. * * * This place,
without question, is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this
country, and most convenient for habitation, the air temperate in summer
and not violent in winter. It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The
Indians in one night commonly will catch thirty sturgeons in a place
where the river is not above 12 fathoms broad, and as for deer,
buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them. * * * The 27th
of June I manned my shallop and went up with the flood, the tide rising
about 4 feet at this place. We had not rowed above 3 miles, but we might
hear the falls to roar about 6 miles distant."[7]
[Note 7: Charles Burr Todd's "Story of Washington," p. 18. New York,
1889.]
MARYLAND.--There is no evidence that the bison ever inhabited Maryland,
except what has already been adduced with reference to the District of
Columbia. If either of the references quoted may be taken as conclusive
proof, and I see no reason for disputing either, then the fact that the
bison once ranged northward from Virginia into Maryland is fairly
established. There is reason to expect that fossil remains of _Bison
americanus_ will yet be found both in Maryland and the District of
Columbia, and I venture to predict that this will yet occur.
VIRGINIA.--Of the numerous references to the occurrence of the bison in
Virginia, it is sufficient to allude to Col. William Byrd's meetings
with buffaloes in 1620, while surveying the southern boundary of the
State, about 155 miles from the coast, as already quoted; the references
to the discovery of buffaloes on the eastern side of the Virginia
mountains, quoted by Mr. Allen from Salmon's "Present State of
Virginia," page 14 (London, 1737), and the capture _and domestication_
of buffaloes in 1701 by the Huguenot settlers at Manikintown, which was
situated on the James River, about 14 miles above Richmond. Apparently,
buffaloes were more numerous in Virginia than in any other of the
Atlantic States.
NORTH CAROLINA.--Colonel Byrd's discoveries along the interstate
boundary between Virginia and North Carolina fixes the presence of the
bison in the northern part of the latter State at the date of the
survey. The following letter to Prof. G. Brown Goode, dated Birdsnest
post-office, Va., August 6, 1888, from Mr. C. R. Moore, furnishes
reliable evidence of the presence of the buffalo at another point in
North Carolina: "In the winter of 1857 I was staying for the night at
the house of an old gentleman named Houston. I should judge he was
seventy then. He lived near Buffalo Ford, on the Catawba River, about 4
miles from Statesville, N. C. I asked him how the ford got its name. He
told me that his grandfather told him that when he was a boy the buffalo
crossed there, and that when the rocks in the river were bare they would
eat the moss that grew upon them." The point indicated is in longitude
81° west and the date not far from 1750.
SOUTH CAROLINA.--Professor Allen cites numerous authorities, whose
observations furnish abundant evidence of the existence of the buffalo
in South Carolina during the first half of the eighteenth century. From
these it is quite evident that in the northwestern half of the State
buffaloes were once fairly numerous. Keating declares, on the authority
of Colhoun, "and we know that some of those who first settled the
Abbeville district in South Carolina, in 1756, found the buffalo
there."[8] This appears to be the only definite locality in which the
presence of the species was recorded.
[Note 8: Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peter's River, 1823,
II, p. 26.]
GEORGIA.--The extreme southeastern limit of the buffalo in the United
States was found on the coast of Georgia, near the mouth of the Altamaha
River, opposite St. Simon's Island. Mr. Francis Moore, in his "Voyage to
Georgia," made in 1736 and reported upon in 1744,[9] makes the following
observation:
[Note 9: Coll. Georgia Hist. Soc., I, p. 117.]
"The island [St. Simon's] abounds with deer and rabbits. There are no
buffalo in it, though there are large herds upon the main." Elsewhere in
the same document (p. 122) reference is made to buffalo-hunting by
Indians on the main-land near Darien.
In James E. Oglethorpe's enumeration (A. D. 1733) of the wild beasts of
Georgia and South Carolina he mentions "deer, elks, bears, wolves, and
buffaloes."[10]
[Note 10: Ibid., I, p. 51.]
Up to the time of Moore's voyage to Georgia the interior was almost
wholly unexplored, and it is almost certain that had not the "large
herds of buffalo on the main-land" existed within a distance of 20 or 30
miles or less from the coast, the colonists would have had no knowledge
of them; nor would the Indians have taken to the war-path against the
whites at Darien "under pretense of hunting buffalo."
Pages:
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
14 |
15 |
16 |
17 |
18 |
19 |
20 |
21 |
22