Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1892 — DESTRUCTION OF BISON. [ARTICLE]

DESTRUCTION OF BISON.

An Tnrtnutry th«i Might •23,000,000 Annuntly StopldJyt - Wiped Oat-A Steru Uwa. > ■: —*— In the settlement of the Weat mnch was done to which, let ns hope, the historians of the future will be a littl© blind. The brave and somewhat terrible men who ero-ssed (he Alleghamoo - into a then apparently Illimitable wilderness developed and transmitted to their dhitdreii a certain disregard for the rights of the' natives, brhtc and human, with whom they crime tato enn« tact which has oAly now begun to disappear. A sad and bitter tessoa had to be learned by the Western people before they were aMe to appreciate the scntiment'which should have mailed to make the progress of civilization lea* uncivilized, This lesson was sternly enforced when they suddenly realized five years ngo that of the uncounted millions of buffalo which had roamed dense herds, covering acres on acres of land, scarcely a thousand were left An industry that might easily have earned $25,600,000 annually to the Northwestern and Southwestern sections had been literally destroyed, and destroyed in a way as" stnpid as it wat brutal. No event resulting from Western settlement it more shocking oi more unfortunate than the extermination of the American bison. In a recent pnblication issued f:on> the Government Printing Ofllcc, Superintendent Hornaday, of the Zoological Park.has given atf exhaustive account of this magnificent animal, certaiuly the noblest ruminant that has ever trod the ehrth, of his habits, his haunts, his place in American zoology, ami of the wicked manner of his taking off. It is a highly interesting book, but it cats only bo toad with an ever-increasing sense of pain and shame. It is a reasonable estimate that the great southern herd of buffalo "contained in 1870 6,000,000 animals, and the northern herd about twice as many. In fifteen vears all these majestic beasts have been killed, and by methods the ei4tome of meanness. Tho Indian buffalo chase was a great sport full of excitement, sufficiently touched with risk and danger, and open to no objectionSo long as the while hunter confined himself to the Indian methods, e'en though he used a far deadlier and more certain weapon, he could have mad* uo such impression on the species as menaced, its destruction. Tho chase gave its object nt least a chance of escape. But the white hunters were too desperately greedy to be satisfied with honorable sport. It was the “still-hunt” that exterminated the bnffaio. It wns taken at a complete disadvantage and murdered by tens of thousands. The buffalo was stupid. Ho could not understand • rifle shot He Wns dependent, too, upon the leader of bis band, and did nothing except what the old cow suggested. The hunter approaching the herd to leeward, had only to get a stand where he was out of and he could go ahead and slaughter the cattle as fast as ho could drop cartridges into his rifle. The bnffaio would hear a noiso they could not locate, see a littV? puff of white smoke they could not understand, and would watch each other drop to the earth without tho slightest appreciation of the cause. In this wuy a few thousand L-.tntsr, o ia a dozcu years were enabled to destroy fotever on animal or the highest economic value to the country. To-day there, are less tbau 700 wild buffalo in existence. Mr. Hornaday makes some very valuable suggestions He points out the danger ot the utter extinction of the. species by crossing and in-breedings, and urges that stejis should be immediately taken for the protection and care of the little band of 200 cows now in the i’cllowst one Park. Experi monte in breeding buffalo bulls to domestic cows have been highly successful, and are now going on to an extent which justifies the fear that in another score of years the genuine buffalo will not exist at all. Congress should keep ever in view the lesson of the gieat crime which has made it necessary. Similar "sjjort" ha* reduced the Imnds of elk, moose, caribou and oilier big game that was onoe so plentiful in out forests, mountains and plains to a pitiful few. It now threato.l? our seal, walrus and other marine and f.<r-lxshr-ing animals. Its result is i nori table unless Congress strikes such a blow at it as will break it up forever.— N. K Trilmne.