Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1895 — EXTINCTION OF THE BISON. [ARTICLE]

EXTINCTION OF THE BISON.

Only Two Hundred Wild Buffalo Still In Amarloa. In a wild state the American bison, or buffalo, is practically, though not quite wholly, extinct. At the present moment there are about 200 wild buffaloes alive and on foot In the Ignited States. To obtain these high figures we Include the 150 indlvidals that the white head hunters and the red meat hunters have thus far left alive in the Yellowstone Park, where the buffaloes are fondly supposed t'kbe protected from slaughter. Beside these there are only two other bunches—one of about 20 head in Lost Park, Col., protected by State laws, 'and another, containing between 110 and 40 head. In Vai Verde County, Texas, between Devil’s River and the Rio Grande. Four years ago there were over 800 head in the Yellowstone Park, thriving and increasing quite satisfactorily, Through them we fondly hoped the species would even yet be saved from absolute extinction. But, alas! we were reckoning without the poachers. Congress provides pay for just one solitary scout to guard in winter 11,575 square miles of rugged mountain country against the horde of lawless white men und Indians who surround the park on all sides, eager to kill the lust buffalo! The poachers have been hard at work, and as a result our park herd has recently decreased more than one-half In number. It is a brutal, burning shame that formerly, through lack of congressional law adequately to punish such poachers as the wretch who was actually caught red handed in January, 1894, while skinning seven dead buffaloes! and now, through lack of a paltry SI,BOO a year to pay four more scouts, the park buffaloes are all doomed to certain and speedy destruction.

Beside the places mentioned, there is only one other spot In all North America that contains wild buffaloes. Immediately southwestward of Great Slave Lake there lies a vast wilderness of swamps and stunted pines into which no white man has ever penetrated far, and where the red man still reigns supreme. It is bounded on the north by the Liard and Mackenzie Rivers, on the east by the Slave River, on the south by the Peace River, and on the west by the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Warburton Fike says it is now the greatest beaver country in the world, and that it also contains a few bands of the so-called wood buffalo. “Sometimes they are heard of at Forts Smith and Vermillion, sometimes at Fort St. John, on the Peace River, and occasionally at Fort Nelson, on the Liard; . . . but it is Impossible to say anything about their numbers.” At all events, in February, 1890, Mr. Pike found eight buffaloes only four days’ travel from Fort Resolution, on Great Slave Lake, and succeeded in killing one. The Canadian authorities estimate the total number in that region at 300.