Coronado, in 1542,
reached the buffalo country on his way to Quivira,
and traversed the plains that were "full of crooke-backed oxen, as the mountain
Serena in Spaine is of Sheepe."
In 1612 an English
navigator named Samuel Argoll mentions meeting with buffalo while on a trip to
Virginia, discovering them some miles up the Pembrook (Potomac) River, probably
near present-day Washington, D.C. Father Hennepin encountered buffalo in 1679
while on a journey up the St. Lawrence River. Marquette has said that the
prairies along the Illinois River were "covered with buffaloes."
Lewis and Clark,
the explorers, when on their return trip down the Missouri River in 1806,
mention having to wait an hour for a herd that was then crossing the river.
Colonel Richard I.
Dodge, in his Plains of the Great West, describing a herd met with in Kansas, said: "In May, 1871, I drove in a light wagon from old
Fort Zarah
to
Fort Larned
on the Arkansas River, 34 miles. At least 25 miles of this distance was through
one immense herd, composed of countless smaller herds of buffalo then on their
journey north. The whole country appeared one great mass of buffalo, moving
slowly to the northward. The herds in the valley sullenly got out of my way,
and, turning, stared stupidly at me, sometimes at only a few yards' distance.
When I had reached a point where the hills were no longer than a mile from the
road, the buffalo on the hills, seeing an unusual object in their rear, turned,
stared an instant, then started at full speed towards me, stampeding and
bringing with them the numerous herds through which they passed and pouring down
upon me all the herds, no longer separated, but one immense compact mass of
plunging animals, mad with fright, and as irresistible as an avalanche. Reining
up my horse, I waited until the front of the mass was within 50 yards, when a
few well-directed shots from my rifle split the herd, and sent it pouring off in
two streams to my right and left. When all had passed me they stopped,
apparently satisfied, though thousands were yet within range of my rifle and
many within less than 100 yards. Disdaining to fire again, I sent my servant to
cut out the tongues of the fallen. This occurred so frequently within the next
10 miles, that when I arrived at
Fort Larned
I had twenty-six tongues in my wagon. I was not hunting, wanted no meat, and
would not voluntarily have fired at the herds. I killed only in
self-preservation and fired almost every shot from the wagon." This herd is
estimated to have numbered about 4,000,000 head.
Accounts are numerous
of the existence of buffalo in other remote localities, but on the great plains
they throve best and were to be found in the greatest numbers. The mating season
occurred when the herd was on the range, when the calves were from two to four
months old. During the "running season" the herds came together in one dense
mass of many thousands -- in many instances so numerous as to blacken the face
of the landscape.
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LEGENDS
OF KANSAS
